


"Everything's Fine, Right?"

by thatcoolguy17



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Baby on the Way!, Doctor - Freeform, Drastic Events, F/M, Family, Firefighter, Friendship, Multi, Police, Romance Growing, friends - Freeform, married
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-05
Updated: 2016-04-05
Packaged: 2018-05-18 10:47:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 42,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5925640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatcoolguy17/pseuds/thatcoolguy17
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Definitely Modern AU. Natsu Dragneel is a simple firefighter and his loving wife he adores, Erza Scarlet who is a simple doctor. Living in the city of Magnolia, they encounter many situations that can leave them emotionally hurt or physically hurt. Can they survive the difficulty of actually being human? More characters would be introduced later in the chapters. Slight OOC. Rated T</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Red Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: This would be my third project along with Chasing Scarlet and At the End of the Tunnel. This one (I hope) is going to be very different from the ones I've written. So if I update late or I'm busy, it's probably because I'm also writing the other stories chapter's as well. Hope you enjoy this story, it's kind of gonna be a long one. (The other stories I mentioned would be transferred here as well.)
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters. This is purely fan-made and it has no association with canon stuff in the actual manga/anime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The heat was getting intense with every minute that passed by. Natsu's oxygen tank was getting low and the family he intended to help was still on the other side of the building.
> 
> "NATSU!" One of the firefighters called out to his co-worker, waving his arm around to come back.
> 
> He turned to look at him, telling him to get out of the building through the window they came from. "I'M NOT LEAVING THIS FAMILY BEHIND!" He turned back to see through the fire.
> 
> The fire was getting more intense, getting much harder for Natsu to see through it as well as be inside it. "HELP US! WE'RE IN HERE!" He kept hearing the family's plead for help. Their voices were becoming hoarse due to the lack of oxygen and the carbon monoxide in the air.
> 
> "NATSU!" His partner kept calling out for him, this time when Natsu turned, he pointed at the roof. Warning him that it is getting weaker and weaker.
> 
> Natsu was now worried than ever, seeing the roof above him crumbling down bit by bit. "Shit!"

_**A Few Hours Earlier** _

The city of Magnolia, population of over hundred thousand, was finally becoming more and more awake as the sun came to the skies. Cars were everywhere, making their usual honking sounds, begging the other cars in front of them to move hoping to make it to their jobs or back to their homes after a long night shift.

In one of Magnolia's apartment complexes, laid a pinkette haired man, sleeping on the chair that laid out on his balcony of his apartment. "Darling." A loud but soothing voice of a female came from inside the apartment.

"Darling." She yelled out louder than her first, hoping this time he had woken up from his slumber. A red head women poked out from the open door, seemingly watching the man snore, moving the today's newspaper on his face little by little. "Darling." She came out to the balcony holding a spatula on her right hand and wearing an apron over her clothing, went up to him and shook him with he left none occupied hand.

As the pinkette was shaken lightly, the newspaper that was covering his face fell to the floor, scattering everywhere on the floor. "OI, NATSU!" She elevated her voice again, this time near his face.

The pinkette quickly woke up in a disarray accidently bumping heads with his beloved red head. "OW!" Both of them said at the same time.

Natsu now sat down, rubbing his injury on his forehead. He then saw the red head doing the same, but standing. "Oh, did I bump heads with you Erza?" He asked her.

"Yeah, I got to close to your face when I yelled to wake you up." Erza was still rubbing her face.

"What time is it?" Natsu stretched about, raising his arms behind his back.

"It's 8 a.m." Erza checked her watch.

"Something smells good," Natsu got up from his seat and started walking back inside with Erza. "What are you cooking?"

"Pancakes," she said as he let her go first back inside the apartment. As they went in, they continued to walk from the living room to that of the kitchen. "Your plate is right there." She pointed at the plate that was neatly set up.

"Ah sweet, thanks honey." He took the seat and began to dig into his food, chewing more than he can swallow as always.

"You want milk or coffee?" She asked as she flipped another pancake.

"Milk is good." He spoke as he chewed.

She set the stove temperature back on low so her pancake won't burn. She went across from where Natsu was, opening the refrigerator and taking out the jug of milk. She pour some in a small mug and gave it to Natsu. "Here you go." She placed it next to him.

He instantly grabbed his mug and jugged it all down. "Ah!" He said as he gulped most of it down.

"You're done eating already?" She turned look at the pinkette, stretching his arms again and hitting his belly like a drum set.

"Yeah," he got up from his chair, sliding it out and back in, got his dirty dishes and went to the sink. He began washing them. "I'm going to get ready for work." He scrubbed his plate, fork and mug spotless, drying them with a towel and placing them with the other clean dishes. "You're going to want me to take you to work today, right?"

"Yeah," she was finally done baking her pair of pancakes. She took her plate and sat down where Natsu sat before. "Apparently, Bisca had some other plans and won't carpool for today." She started chowing down on her food.

"Am I also going to have to take your subordinates as well to work?" He called out from the bathroom.

"Yeah." She answered with a mouth full.

"What are their names again? Kagura and..?" He waited for her to finish her sentence.

"Yukino," she said before chugging some of her milk. "You've only met them once, I can understand that you wouldn't remember their names of the bat."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." He came out of the bathroom wearing a short sleeved white short, under it was a plain tank top. His bottoms were regular blue jeans and his shoes were the same as before.

"You left your firefighter gear back at the station?" She raised an eyebrow at his attire choice of wear.

"Yeah, they're too big to fit in any of the cabinets or in the wardrobe," he took the empty seat next to her, waiting for her to finish. "Then there's the closet but I doubt you'd want your clothes to smell like sweat and smoke, do you now?"

"Nope." She was finally done with her breakfast, getting up first before taking her plates to the sink and washing them.

"Shall we go, oh great doctor?" Natsu went from behind her, taking off her apron and placing it on one of the table's chair, revealing her white blouse and her black dress. He gently kissed her on the cheek, making her somewhat blush.

She turned around, instantly wrapping her arms around his neck and kissed him back in the lips, tasting the leftover bit of maple syrup on his lip. "Yeah, but we're forgetting something." Both of them stopped their kissing.

"Which is?" His face still closed to hers.

"Our lunches," she instantly broke of their embrace and headed for the refrigerator once again, this time taking out two bags of what seemed to be their lunches. "I prepared them last night before going to bed." She handed him his bag and continued on to the living room.

Natsu wasn't so far behind. He picked up his pair of keys, his wallet and his PDA off of the coffee table and headed towards the door where Erza awaited for him to open the door. "Mi lady." He opened the door, letting her go on out first like a gentleman he was. He locked the door using his keys, turning the knob left to right, and putting his keys back into his pocket.

Both the couple walked towards the buildings' elevator. Natsu pushed the arrow pointing down button, both waiting for the elevator to come back from the first floor to the ninth floor. "So who are we picking up first?" Natsu asked Erza. Both had their backs up against the wall, still waiting for the elevator that suddenly stopped at the third floor.

"Well, Dr. Mikazuchi only lives a couple of blocks from here," she told him. "I guess we can pick her up first."

"That's Kagura, no?" He guessed.

"Yeah." She quickly answered him.

"And Yukino?" He then asked for the next doctor's location.

"Dr. Agria lives near Saber Street, it's not far from here neither," the elevator finally came to their floor slowly opening up its doors. It was empty and soon both Erza and Natsu now occupied its space. She quickly hit the first floor button and the doors closed on their own once again. "It's like what? A couple minutes from here?"

"10 minutes," Natsu specified the time. "17 if there is a lot of traffic."

"Well that's oddly specific." Erza looked up, staring at the elevator's passage through the floors.

"I'm a firefighter," Natsu stared at the same thing Erza was staring at. "I've almost been everywhere in this God forsaken place." He continued. "Besides, not too long ago was there a fire near there."

"Seems like's there's been a lot of fire pandemics nowadays," her words hinted a bit of concern over them. "Lot more burn victims in our ER lately, is there a serial arsonist?"

"At first we thought that it was just random, you know?" He scratched his chin, voicing what he and the other firefighters have thought. "But then…"

"But then what?" She turned to look at him, now a bit more concern than she was before.

"The last 4 fires," he continued, processing and telling Erza about earlier events. "They all originated from the same place and had the same _pattern_ in ignition."

"Which is?" Erza asked.

"You're not going to believe it but…" Natsu held his breath, holding in his light chuckle. "It's with a crystal ball and a T.V."

"A crystal ball… and a T.V?" She looked at him with a serious face, trying to see if he was serious or not.

"Ok, ok, ok," he released his laughter. To her dismay, she was slightly irritated by it, making her nudge him with her elbow in the gut. "OW!"

"I really wanted to know, Natsu!" She stopped.

"Alright, but that was true though," he massaged his stomach with both of his hands. "Anyways, the point of origin is a bit messy but it turns out, someone throws a Molotov into the house, whether it'd be a child's room, the living room, the garage or the kitchen."

"A child's room?" Upon hearing that a Molotov was thrown a child's room somewhat made Erza a bit unnerving.

"Yeah, a little girls room to be exact." He said.

"Is she and her family alright?" She asked.

"Yeah, they weren't in town when that happened." He answered.

"Thank God," She sighed, relieved of the news. "Are the cops on the case?" The elevator finally stopped at their designated floor and out both went. A couple of feet and they made it to the main lobby of the apartment building. The color is just the usual beige and the all of the mailbox centered the right wall, depending on position.

"Yeah, we have to report the fires that have the same M.O or pattern." Natsu finally responded her. He walked towards the main desk which was just a regular type of school desk. On it, had the ledger which contained all the signatures of the tenants in the building. He, with his right hand, picked up the pen that had fallen onto the chair and wrote down his and Erza's name under the check-out print.

"That's good." She then changed the subject to that of PG. "Looks like they're still remodeling the main lobby's desk." Erza looked at the drapes that covered the main lobby's desk and a couple of bulky men and women coming in and out as they switch out the old and splintering wood for the new and smooth wood.

"NO! NOT THERE!" Yelled a short lady from behind the drapes. Erza and Natsu both looked at the lady's shadow figure, waving around her arms back and forth. "THIS GOES HERE YOU DIMWIT!" She continued to harass and command the workers.

"We should get out of here before she starts commanding us." Natsu gave out a weak wry laugh.

"I SAID NOT THERE!" She yelled once more, causing both Erza and Natsu to sweat drop.

"I'm right behind you on that one." Both Erza and Natsu vamoosed out of the building. As they headed out the main doors', the loud beeping of cars ensnared their ears.

They began to walk in their right direction, holding hands and standing close to each other. Couple of another feet and they made it to the building's parking space. "Where'd you park the car yesterday?" Natsu asked, looking over from the entrance at all the parked vehicles. Different shapes, different colors, all the more which irritated Natsu slightly.

"In the same spot as usual." Still continuing to hold on to his hand, Erza walked towards one of the corner of the parking lot. There, a black sleek 2014 Honda Civic was parked. Its body style was that of a Sedan.

Natsu let go of Erza's hand, sliding his hand into his pocket and taking out his keys. Upon closing in on the car's door, Natsu finally found its key, inserting it, twisting it and opening the door. He clicked on the _Unlock_ symbol on the side of the door, letting Erza in on the passenger side. Once they sat down, they closed their doors, put their lunches in the back seats of the car. Erza put on her seatbelt whilst as Natsu turned on the engine. Soon as he turned on the engine, Erza pressed on of the buttons from the side door, causing it to put the window down. Natsu did the same and finally put his seatbelt on before switching the gear from Park to Drive.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Erza looked at him turning the gear.

"Hmm?" He looked at her, trying to figure out what she meant by that.

She then opened the car's glove compartment, taking out a prescription bottle. It looked like any pharmaceutical bottle, orange container with both a white lid and white label. "Your medicine for motion sickness." She then tossed them at him.

"That's why I could always count on you, ya know?" He smiled at her making her blush at his sight. He opened the lid and took out 2 pills.

"Here." She then got one of the water bottles that was left in the car's cup holders. There was always one or two water bottles for Natsu to use to gulp down his medication.

He put the pills in his mouth first, then reached in for the water bottle she handed over. "Thank you." He put the lid back on the prescription bottle, putting it between his thighs and opened the water bottle's cap, chugging it down all of it in one go.

"Now with that over, shall we go now?" She said.

"Yeah. So… Dr. McCheese? Right?" He asked, pressing down accelerator pedal and turning the driver's wheel to the right.

"If you're referring to Dr. Mikazuchi, then yes, we go pick her up first." She said, reaching and uncovering the visor's mirror, using it to fix her already beautiful tied up scarlet hair.

Natsu made a few other turns, finally reaching the streets of Magnolia and into the crowded streets. "Your hair is fine, Erza." He waited for the traffic light to turn green.

"I know, I know but," she said, constantly tying up her in different ways. "Just can't seem to find the best way for it."

"Should've just kept it the way it was," he leaned on his curled left fist. "It was very pretty the way it was before."

"I suppose." She put her back into a ponytail, heavily sighing out.

The traffic light turned green, signaling the cars to continue to their paths. It wasn't long before they've stopped at another red light. "Jesus Christ," Natsu heavily sighed, leaning more towards his seat. "Why is it that this goddamn city always has traffic in this time of hour!?"

"Calm down, it's about to be 9." She looked at her wrist watch.

"Exactly what I mean." He grunted about.

Green was a go again. "Turn right in this corner." Erza said.

"Gotcha."

Several minutes passed, Natsu kept on beeping and hollering at the cars in front of him, telling them that they drove slower than snails. Erza kept herself occupied in her book, _Emergency Doctor by Edward Zeigler and Lewis R. Goldfrank, M.D.,_ the title read. She had immersed herself almost halfway through the book already in a rather short time.

"This the place?" Natsu asked stopping both the car and Erza's train of thought.

She put her book in between her legs and somewhat leaned towards Natsu side of the seat, looking at the apartment complex. "Yeah this is the place," she then noticed her resident. "Oh there she is."

The dark haired woman with a white headband with a white ribbon tied at the middle in a bow, pointing straight up, walked towards them, seemingly spotting their car out of the bunch. "Dr. Scarlet!" She greeted her through Natsu's window.

"Come on in, Dr. Mikazuchi." Erza unlocked the car's doors.

She opened the left side back door, taking the seat right behind Natsu. "If I remember correctly from the last time we've met, you're Mr. Dragneel, right?" She asked, closing the door.

"Yeah, Kagura right?" He greeted her, locking the car's doors once again.

"Yeah." She answered.

"It's ok if I call you by the first name right? I don't know how to pronounce your last name." He asked her, driving back into the traffic, going to get the other resident.

"Sure, I get that a lot." She allowed it.

"Saber Street now, right?" He turned to look at Erza again.

"Yeah."

…

After several excruciating minutes passed by, the traffic along the roads of the city began to reduce. The streets weren't as crowded as before but the process of going from one place to the other was still the same. Natsu continued to complain about the other drivers' way of driving, while Erza and Kagura talked casually about work, checking up on their patients. "Oh for Christ sakes man!" Natsu stopped the car dead in its tracks, causing Erza and Kagura to end their conversation to see what the fuzz is about. "THAT WAS MY RIGHT OF WAY, YOU ASSHOLE!" Natsu put his window down all the way, taking out the majority of his head, chest and one of his arms, yelling at a motorcyclist who passed the traffic lights red at the intersection, crossing the road from left to right.

"YOU SNOOZE, YOU LOSE PAL! GIHI!" The motorcyclist said, before he disappeared deeper into his lane.

"Tch, bastard," He went back into the car, putting his window back the way it was with only a few inches opened. He turned to look at the women, staring at him as if he was some type of mad man. "What?"

"You stopped the car right in the middle of the street with ongoing traffic." Erza said.

"And?" He said.

"Shouldn't you, like, start moving the car?" Kagura said from behind.

"Right." He nodded, turning back to face the front windshield and pressing down on the accelerator pedal, passing the traffic light which just turned red.

Wasn't long before he made a few turns and finally made to their next destination: Saber Street. It was a nice street, it didn't have that many large buildings, complexes or any business type towers. The street had some restaurants of the sort though, ranging from buffets to coffee shops. "So where does this lady live at?" Natsu asked, breaking the conversation between his wife and her co-worker.

"Over there by the coffee shop." Kagura was the first to answer, pointing at the brown colored brick apartment complexes.

Natsu slowed the movement of the car, gentle pressing down on the brake pedal with his right foot. He parked right beside the pavement, right in front of the building. "She had greyish to white hair didn't she?" He saw a familiar face near the building's front doors.

"Yeah, I'm surprised you'd remember that part of her appearance." Erza furrowed her eyes, locking them at Natsu who fixed himself in his seat, leaning his back more into his seat.

"Don't think too much of it," he yawned, putting his hands in between the back of his head and the seat, making them seem like pillows. "Besides, like you said, I've only met them once. Kind of hard to think of something that's barely vague?"

"…you know what? I'll take that excuse." She said, going back into her book.

"So you're actually going to give me the benefit of the doubt right now?" As much to Natsu's dismay, it's one of the fewest times where he won an actual argument against Erza.

"Yeah," she said, multitasking between conversing and reading. "This is one of the fewest times where you actually use your brain."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Natsu happily grinned.

"She's coming." Kagura pointed out.

The young doctor came out of the building. The first thing she saw was 2 familiar co-workers in the same car. She slowly approached the car at the end of the pavement. "Hi Dr. Scarlet. Hi Dr. Mikazuchi. Hi… um Mr. Scarlet?" She said into Natsu's opened window.

"Good Morning, Dr. Agria." Erza was the first to greet her.

"And it's not _Scarlet_ , it's Dragneel. Natsu Dragneel." He clarified her last bit.

"My mistake," She then opened the door. Kagura scoot over to the right, putting Erza's and Natsu's lunches on top of hers on her lap. Yukino took over her seat, seemingly putting her seatbelt over her chest and into its socket lock. "I forget that we've only met once."

"Yeah," he turned to look at the back, moving the car backwards to get out of the parking space between 2 other cars. After a few seconds of flailing forward and backward, the car made its way to the street again. "To the hospital, right?"

"Where else?" Erza said.

"Got it."

…

It didn't take that long to get to the hospital after the traffic subsided. The streets weren't as loud as before and Natsu no longer hollered at them for being slow. As for Erza, she continued to read her book while her two co-workers chit-chattered about in whispers. They were getting closer and closer, moving feet by feet. Upon finally arriving to the hospital, the loud sounds of ambulance sirens echoed in the streets. A few nurses and doctors gathered about near the ER entrances, waiting for EMTs to open the ambulance's doors. That was the last known thing before Natsu turned into the hospitals parking facility.

He passed a few cars, making his way to the end of the lot, finally finding Erza's parking space. **DR. ERZA SCARLET** were written on the parking space's wall. He steadily parked the car back to front, the back facing the wall while the front faced the inner street of the parking facility. Just as he turned off the ignition, both girls in the back got out, Yukino being the first to get out while Kagura placed their lunches back were they were, closing the doors leaving Erza and Natsu alone in the car.

"Why did you turn off the car?" She looked at him, puzzled to what he was going to do next. "Don't you work today?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's just…" His face suddenly turned slightly green and his arms covered his aching stomach. "Motion sickness is kicking in now, so I rather just walk it to the fire station."

"You sure?" She asked.

"Yeah, besides it's only a few blocks away from here." He assured her.

She leaned forward toward him, kissing him in the lips for a goodbye. She could still taste the leftover syrup on his lips. "Be careful ok?" She broke away the kiss.

"I always am." He replied with smile across his face.

"Are you going to want me to pick you up? I'm usually the one that gets out of work much early." She asked, about to open her door to get out of the car.

"Yeah. What? You think I'm going to walk it back home!?" He raised his left eyebrow, releasing a slight chuckle as well.

"Right." She didn't try to argue back.

She opened her door and got out. Before closing the door right behind her, Natsu called her. "Hey, you're forgetting something." He held her lunch bag near face.

She instantly went back, only putting half her body back in the car to get her lunch from her husband. "Thanks." She kissed him on the cheek, grabbed her bag and continued on her way to the hospital.

She closed the door and walked with her co-workers. From the parking foundation to the elevator, Natsu could only stare so much from behind the wheel. He leaned more onto his seat, putting his right arm over his eyes and heavily sighed. "Jesus Christ, I should get going."

He immediately grabbed his lunch from behind the front seat, opened the door, getting out, pressing the button on the door making a loud but short sound and closed the door behind him. He walked from his car to where he first entered inside the parking lot. He made it to the not so crowded side lines of the street, turning right and heading towards his destination.

For more than 10 minutes or so, the streets were once again crowded with cars. "Thank God I'm not driving anymore." He said walking and looking at the street from the corner of his eye.

The sun was out, making the city shine bright beautiful. Although Natsu was a firefighter, he couldn't stand the sweat dripping down from his forehead. Every once in a while, he would have to raise his left arm and wipe the sweat from his forehead. Wasn't long before he finally made it to the station.

As he went inside, he noticed one of his co-workers washing one of the fire trucks. "Hey Macao." He greeted him. Macao was the veteran firefighter in their team, he's been here as long as their captain, which was roughly about 15-20 years since their early twenties.

Macao dropped the sponge back into the bucket, wiped away his hands with one of the towels laying on the floor and went towards Natsu. "Yo." A simple one word was all.

"Where's the other fire truck? Is team 2 on another case?" Natsu looked at the vacant spot next to the fire truck.

"Yeah," Macao then used his towel to wipe away the sweat from his forehead. "Those monkeys from last week started yet another fire again at the zoo."

"Again?" Natsu was baffled. When they went to stop the fire the first time, the monkeys had already spread the fire from their cage all the way to the petting zoo. No animal was harmed but a few of the zoo workers were burned, not mild burns but a few burns that'll make a few marks. "How did they do it this time? The same way as before of with the liquor that those drunks throw in their cages?"

"Probably," he chuckled. "If you're looking for the rest of the team, some are in the weight room and a few aren't here yet."

"Ah," Natsu simply nodded, going in. "Well I guess I'll go change. I'll probably just be in the weight room."

"Right." Macao just stood there next to the bucket, watching the pinkette man walking towards the door and into the changing room, leaving him where he was before he got here; cleaning the damn truck.

Wasn't long before Natsu was already in his standard blue clothing uniform. He put his other clothes in his yellow fading colored locker along with his lunch. As soon as he closed and locked the locker a familiar long blue haired girl from his team was going through her locker. "Hey Juvia." He greeted her. Juvia is the only female in their team but does as much work as the men in the team, maybe even more on some occasions. She was roughly the same age as him, which was 25 years old.

She closed her locker halfway, peeking a bit to look at her fellow firefighter. "Juvia says hi." She greeted. Most of the time, Natsu didn't mind her weird way of speaking.

"You just got here?" Natsu put his left foot on the sitting bench, tying up his loose shoelace.

"Yeah. Juvia would've gotten here sooner if she didn't have to argue with stupid boyfriend." She slammed her locker door.

"Whoa," he sweat-dropped, slightly nervous at the atmosphere. "Remind me never to get on your bad side right there Juvia."

She could only stare at Natsu, thinking to herself whether it was a compliment or an insult. "Hm!" Is all she said before leaving the area to Natsu.

"All women are different..." He muttered to himself.

Just as Juvia walked out, another familiar face from his team came inside the changing/locker room, male. He had a broken line tattoo that ran across his face from one cheek to the other. His hair was 3/4 black while the rest had white, tied up in a ponytail like knot. "Oh, hey Natsu." He greeted the fellow pinkette.

"How's it going there Toto?" Natsu greeted him. Like earlier, he was also roughly the same age as him, maybe a year or two older than him. He switches from handling the water hose to rescuing people inside burning buildings and such.

"For the last time," he dropped his bag near his feet, picking at his lock. "It's Totomaru. Using Toto for short is weird, it's what my mother used to call me."

"Right, won't happen again." Natsu promised. He then started to walk towards the same exit, leaving the firefighter for himself in the locker room.

The next room was the weight room. He saw Juvia on the treadmill going at least 2-3 miles per hour on it. "WHY WON'T THIS STUPID SHIT COME OUT!?" A loud male voice by the vending machine yelled, making Natsume loose his train of thought. He turned to look at one corner of the gym, looking at the long green haired buff man, shaking the vending machine.

"You do realize that shaking the vending machine would only cause more trouble than resolving what you need?" Natsu told him.

"Eh what?" The big man turned and looked down on the small man talking to him. "Oh it's you, pink hair."

"What's up, Orga? No pun intended." Natsu crossed his arms around his chest. Orga was roughly 4 years older than Natsu. He's usually arrogant but once you get to know him, he's not a bad guy even for his appearance.

"Whatever," he turned back to the vending machine and continued his shake like tantrum on the machine. "GIVE ME MY DAMN DRINK!"

"Allow me," another and last remaining member of their group appeared. He went in between Orga and the vending machine and suddenly positioned himself in a fighting like stance. With a simple yet lightning fast jab, his right palm went through the machine, startling both Orga and Natsu with their jaw dropping eye popping faces. "Here you go." He threw one of the energy drinks at Orga, and opening his own.

"God damn, did that not hurt, Bacchus?" Orga looked at the deep hole in the machine.

Baucus gulped down the majority of his drink already. "No." He wiped away the little remaining red dye of the juice he had sipped down from his lips. Bacchus is prideful in his martial arts and despite his size, he was easily as strong as Orga and is exactly the same age as Natsu.

"The Chief ain't going to be too happy about his machine looking like this..." Natsu felt somewhat overwhelmed just by looking at the big hole in the machine, seeing the sodas and the rest of the energy drinks inside it.

"What's this about my machine?" The Chief came from the locker room. He was a tall man, his hair matched the same color as blood when it reaches oxygen and had a few burned areas overlooking his face however they were very unnoticeable.

"Speak of the devil..." Bacchus muttered to himself.

The chief then approached his machine near the huddled men, and no words were said. Only gestures of "who" "what" and "how" were waved around with his arms and with fake tears. Without hesitating, both Natsu and Orga simply pointed with their eyes towards the suspect. "Bacchus! THIS IS COMING OUT OF YOUR PAYCHECK!"

"If it wasn't for me, Orga over here would've completely destroyed it!" Bacchus gutted Orga with his elbow, making the green haired man slightly gasp for air.

"Hey, don't try to shift the blame on me!" Orga, with his right hand, smacked Bacchus in the head causing a small but visible bump on the head.

"WHAT ABOUT YOU NATSU!? WERE YOU THE NEXT PERSON TO TRY THE MACHINE OUT ON THE DAMN BOXING ARENA!?" The chief said to Natsu who was just a victim of chance.

"What!? No. Nothing like that sir." Natsu sweat dropped.

Suddenly, the sirens in the fire station sounded off, quieting the bunch of men and signaling all the members of their team of a fire. "Sir!" Macao entered the weight at the same time Totomaru came rushing in.

"Right, let's go team!" The chief said.

All of them quickly went back into the locker room and changed as they moved about. Time was of the essence at the moment. Everybody, almost all in fireproof gear and uniforms, huddled near the fire truck. "Where is the fire?" The chief asked, clicking in his head gear's belt.

"Not far," Macao answered, getting in on the shotgun side of the truck while the chief got on the driver's seat. "It's an apartment complex a few blocks away from here."

"Is Team 2 on its way?" The chief asked, starting the engine. The rest of the crew held on from either the sides or from the back, ready once they're on the scene.

"Yeah, they're farther from us since they had an earlier fire on the zoo grounds." Macao said.

"The monkeys?" The chief knew about that incident as well.

"Yeah." Macao chuckled.

"Are the paramedics on the scene?" The chief pressed on the pedal to go out.

"They were the first to arrive on the scene." Macao replied.

"Good."

The chief instantly turned on the loud sirens and quickly charged the truck into the ongoing traffic. It wasn't long before the majority of cars being on the street moved to the sides, letting the fire truck go by easily.

They arrive at the scene. The sidewalk in front of the burning apartment was filled with people. From people recording to others being in awe. The firetruck came to a stop, parking right behind the the paramedics ambulance treating the burned and wounded. Luckily for them a fire hydrant was near the burning building and Natsu and Juvia quickly got the hose down and connected it. "OK people, stand back!" The chief said, getting out of the truck and quickly dealing with the growing crowd.

Another pattern of sirens were getting near the burning complex, however, the sound was a bit more distinct than that of a fire trucks. At least 3 or 4 white and black cars with the logo of MPD standing for Magnolia Police Department, parked next to their truck. 2 policemen were in each car, a total of 8 men came out of their cars. A few came to join the chief in controlling the crowd while the others just looked at the increasing blaze.

"What's the current situation, chief Gildarts?" A blonde cop with a similar scar near his eye went and asked the firefighter.

"Currently on it," he then turned away from the crowd and back to his fellow firefighters. "Dragneel, Lockser, and Maru!"

Both Natsu and Juvia gave the fire hose to Macao and Orga, going on their way to the boss. Totomaru was the first to go in the cheif's direction. "You three, prep up. You're all going in to check if there's any remaining people in the building. Chop chop!" Gildarts clapped his hands, signaling them to move quickly.

"Isn't there supposed to be another team of firefighters?" The blonde asked as he saw the three rapidly go back to their truck.

"Yeah, they had another fire earlier at the zoo," Gildarts said. "They'll be here soon."

"Alrig- HEY GET BACK BEHIND THE DO NOT CROSS TAPE!"

Juvia, Natsu and Totomaru quickly put on the back-pack oxygen tanks equipped with mask-inhalers, slowly extended the ladder to reach the burning apartment level floor and quickly proceeded in. This still felt like regular fires to them, always the tip of the iceberg compared to that Hell's fire.

Not even a second inside the burning complex and Natsu was the first the start dripping sweat into his gear. "ANYBODY STILL HERE!?" He yelled in front him, seeing a river of fire through the floor's main hall.

"NATSU, OVER THERE!" Totomaru patted him on the back, getting the firefighter's attention toward the crumbled door.

"Help... somebody... help..." A barely audible and hoarse female voice was heard from behind the rubble blocking the doorway.

"MA'AM PLEASE STAY CALM AND STAY WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW!" Totomaru yelled out, hoping the intense heat didn't cancel out his yell. "WE'RE ABOUT TO TAKE THIS RUBBLE OFF RIGHT NOW! COME ON GUYS."

"RIGHT!" Both Natsu and Juvia said.

All three firefighters came close to the doorway, taking off the burning wood from different sizes. After what seemed like an eternity to them, the rubble was all off revealing 2 civillians; a mother and her baby. "Come with Juvia, she'll take you to the exit." Juvia quickly told the lady and she quickly complied, taking her hot but gentle hand.

"Chief?" Natsu put his walkie-talkie like communication that hanged from his helmet near his ear.

"Yeah?" A static voice can be heard.

"Juvia is coming out with a mother and kid, tell the paramedics to be ready." Natsu said.

"Got it, oh and Natsu, Team 1 is already here and clearing out the rest of the other floors." The chief quickly told him over the microphone.

"Got it, we'll be done with this floor in a bit, we just got to make sure-"

Suddenly, a loud explosion in their floor occurred. From the outside, the many pedestrians behind the cross tape could only awe in shock while looking at the increase black smoke and shards of glass from different floors falling from different heights and crashing down on the sidewalk in front of them. Juvia along with the mother and her daughter held on to the ladder, being shaken up from right to left due to the explosion. "Natsu? Totomaru? Anybody hear me?" The chief wanted a response.

"What the hell is going up there, Gildarts!?" The blonde cop asked him, somewhat concerned over the loud explosion that occurred a couple seconds ago.

"Not entirely sure." Gildarts was about to run back into the fire truck to put on a gas tank and go in himself before finally receiving a response.

"We're... ok... chief." A coughing Natsu said.

"You had me worried there for a second boys." He said, talking in his communication while looking directly at the 7th floor of the building.

"Don't be," Natsu looked at his fellow firefighter, Totomaru, holding on to his mask trying to catch his breath. "I don't know what caused that explosion but it seems to me that this floor is clear."

"Yeah? Well then get out of there!" Chief yelled of the communicator.

"Alrig-" Just before Natsu was able to finish his sentence he heard multiple screams coming from the corridor of the floor.

"HELP US!" "PLEASE!" "SAFE US!" Were yelled and screamed at the same time.

"You heard that too right?!" He turned to look at Totomaru, still wheezing.

"Yeah... but we're in no condition... to go... for them..." Totomaru said.

"You aren't but I am," Natsu quickly dash from from the side windows to the corridor. "I'LL BE THERE IN A SECOND! JUST HOLD ON."

"Oi, Natsu, what the hell is going up right there!?" The chief called from the communicator once again.

"There's still a few civillians left!" Natsu yelled through the communicators, telling him what the fuss was all about.

"A few more!? I thought you said you were clear!?" The chief yelled back.

"No-" Another explosion occurred, but only a weaker one than before. It shook the building tumbling both Natsu and Totomaru to their knees, burning their hands. Although they had gloves on, the heat was still intense.

"That's it, I'm sending Macao to get you both out!" The chief said, ending the discussion upon hearing the explosion. "MACAO!"

Before he knew it, Macao was already on it, climbing up the ladder to enter the pit of hell. "COME ON GUYS!" He called them from the window. He saw them, Natsu was already up trying to find away to the family while Totomaru quickly came to the window.

The heat was getting intense with every minute that passed by. Natsu's oxygen tank was getting low and the family he intended to help was still on the other side of the building.

"NATSU!" Totomaru called out to his co-worker, waving his arm around to come back.

He turned to look at him, telling him to get out of the building through the window they came from. "I'M NOT LEAVING THIS FAMILY BEHIND!" He turned back to see through the fire.

The fire was getting more intense, getting much harder for Natsu to see through it as well as be inside it. "HELP US! WE'RE IN HERE!" He kept hearing the family's plead for help. Their voices were becoming hoarse due to the lack of oxygen and the carbon monoxide in the air.

"NATSU!" His partner kept calling out for him, this time when Natsu turned, he pointed at the roof. Warning him that it is getting weaker and weaker.

Natsu was now worried than ever, seeing the roof above him crumbling down bit by bit. "Shit!"

Before he knew it, instead of the ceiling crashing down on him, he was the one going down. The floor beneath him caved in, and could only stare at his friends as he fell from heaven. "NATSU!" There were no words, just silence surrounding Totomaru's lips.

He landed on his back and his air tank started to leak, making the oxygen go faster than before. Totomaru and Macao looked from above, looking at the hole that caved in almost 2 floors down. As they peeked down, they saw Natsu but unconscious. "WE HAVE TO GET DOWN THERE!" Totomaru yelled.

"HO-" Before Macao can muster up words another explosion occurred this time in their floor.

"What the hell is goin-" The chief's voice was then cut off by the explosion and his eyes caught both of his firefighters crashing through the window and falling down on the pavement, the crowd gasped as they hit the floor. "Shit!" The chief, a few officers, some paramedics and firefighters from both teams quickly went to their fallen comrades' aid.

"Natsu... is... still... in there..." Macao faintly said, slowly losing consciousness. His and Totomaru's gear were badly degraded, all burnt out due to the explosion. Their faces matched the black smoke that continued to leak from the windows of the building.

"What!? Is he still alive!?" The chief said, staring down at both of his firefighters. Totomaru was the first go unconscious, slowly closing his eyelids.

"Don't… know…" Both their head gear were taken off. Macao coughed up blood.

"Sir, I'm going to need you to stay conscious." The paramedic tending to Macao's wounds.

"W... Why?" Macao could only stare at the medic. A young male, probably not even in his mid-twenties yet.

"There's a piece of wood sticking out of your stomach," the paramedic told him, inspecting it from all sides. "Your fireproof gear is what preventing you from bleeding to death."

"That... figures..." Macao could only chuckle at his situation. He then stared up and saw the chief. "Natsu... is on the... fifth floor..."

"Fifth floor? How'd he get from the seventh floor to the fifth floor?" The chief said.

"The floo... floor beneath him caved in..." Macao weakly said. A little stream of blood leaked from his mouth.

"TEAM ONE! GO IN AND GET NATSU! I'M NOT ABOUT TO LOSE ANOTHER FIREFIGHTER!" The chief yelled his command.

"RIGHT!" Team 1 said in harmony. They quickly entered the building through the front doors leaving the rest in the middle of the street where they dragged both fallen members.

"Cheif, we have to get them to a hospital." The paramedic said.

"Well then get to it!" He yelled at him.

"G... Gildarts..." Macao weakly said, catching his breath little by little. Gildarts hated seeing his best firefighter and best friend in this state, it made him seem useless.

"What is it?" The chief said, trying to muster up a fake smile.

"If I don't... make it..." He coughed up more blood.

"Hey, hey don't talk like that," a small tear went down the cheif's cheek. "You're gonna make it, alright?"

"If I don't make it…" he started having problems breathing, but still mustered up the strength say a few words before the paramedics came and took him. "You tell Romeo, my son, to be strong… and my first wife, Rosa, that I'm sorry…"

"Macao…" Gildarts looked straight into his friend's eyes.

"Promise me…" He said.

"Ma-"

"Promise me!" He said once more, much louder than before.

"I… I promise!" He assured his dark blue haired friend.

"The first ambulance is here," the paramedic said. "We're taking him first." He pointed at Macao.

"Y-Yeah, you do that," Gildarts agreed with that. "Juvia go with him, please. I need some of to be there for him while I stay down here for Natsu."

"Ok." She said.

More paramedics came, with a gurney to put Macao on. Slowly, one of them lifted him from his shoulders while the other hurried and carried him from the legs, gently setting him on it. Within seconds, they put him in the truck while Juvia hopped on and closed their doors. "He's gonna be alright." The blonde cop said.

"I really hope you're right, Laxus." Gildarts said, looking at the ambulance going away.

"Holy...!" Totomaru widened his eyes coming back from his unconscious state, gasping for air in his lungs.

"Hey, good morning sunshine." Bacchus mockingly said to the fellow firefighter.

"It's afternoon... dumbass." He retorted back.

Back inside the burning building, Natsu was coming back from his little slumber, finding himself laid out on his back on the floor. He felt a slight ill like pain shivering up his spine; his oxygen had broken his fall but left him with an agitating pain. He was disoriented, his eyesight was seeing double of everything while his hearing was heating echoes of the screams of the family he intended to save. His back was burning up with every second laid on the floor, the oxygen tank made no difference in height gap between his back and the floor. He tried getting up but the fall took a toll on him. He wasted his breath trying to turn to either left or right side. He looked up and to his surprise a fellow firefighter was in front of him, upside from his point. "H... Hey..." He weakly said to him, stretching out his arm towards him.

Suddenly the firefighter stood over Natsu, looking down on him. On his right, Natsu noticed the firefighter carrying something rectangular. "HELP US" "PLEASE!" "SAVE US!" All of the voices emitted from the thing he carried.

Natsu didn't know if he was hallucinating those voices or not. He took one quicker look at the firefighter that stood in front of him. Right there, he knew he was impersonating a firefighter. He then looked into his eyes. Like a scorched Earth, his eyes were red. No one on his team had peculiar eyes like his. "W... Who are... you...?" He mustered up the words, coughing into his mask.

The man with red eyes came closer to Natsu, lunging on one of his knees and facing Natsu face to face. "You already know about me," he gave out a short wry laugh. As much as Natsu wanted to knock the man out, he couldn't. One of his legs got stuck under burning rubble, eating away his fireproof gear. To add to his situation, he can barely see straight and had trouble staying up. "You are in no shape to fight me, now be a good boy and stay put while you burn in this pit of hell." The man stopped lunging, walking away from Natsu and heading into another corridor. He left the rectangular box still emitting the cries a few feet away from Natsu.

Natsu could only stare at the man, leaving him dead in his tracks. "Sh-shit..." Natsu started to inhale some of the carbon monoxide, knowing now that his oxygen tank had nothing more to give him. Several minutes passed, his will has not broken and has not yet succumbed to the weariness. At the same time, the cries were no longer heard from the strange box. He took a quick peek at it and to his surprise the box was on fire thanks to the burning debris next to it.

"THERE HE IS!" One of the men from Team One spotted the fellow pinkette firefighter, stuck under the rubble. He and two others, a female and another tall muscled man came to his aid.

"WE'RE GOING TO GET YOU OUT OF THIS RUBBLE!" The big man quickly, along with the woman began taking off the burning wood that blocked him from moving.

As they were hurrying, the other male was already clinging on Natsu, preparing to take him out. "Don't worry Natsu, they're almost done." He then was pulled closer by Natsu, tugging him from the firefighter's helmet.

"It... was... a trap!" Natsu said in his ear. "The ar... arsonist from before... he was here..." He then pointed at the rectangular.

The firefighter turned to look at what he was pointing at. A large rubble, nothing but burning wood. Just as he was about to turn back, he noticed a lesser fire. He went near it, leaving Natsu were he was before. "This is..!" He quickly put the fire off of it.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING OVER THERE!?" Said the big man, as he carried and threw 3 large pieces of untouched wood on the side.

"IT'S SOMETHING THE COPS MIGHT WANT!" He retorted back. The lingering flames on the box ceased to exist and brought it next to Natsu who was still conscious despite in his state.

"OK! PULL HIM OUT!" The female firefighter signaled him the green light.

Several seconds after he was notified, the leftover debris over Natsu's foot was lifted, freeing him from his grasp and was dragged out of it. The firefighters let the debris fall and rushed over to help Natsu, helping him stand up and walking out. The muscled man saw the big gash in Natsu's oxygen tank. It wasn't releasing any oxygen indicating it was empty, the fellow firefighter gave him oxygen from his tank, lending it to him as they got out. Right behind them were the rest of the firefighters from Team One that came in to look for their fallen comrade suddenly appeared.

As they approached the exit, they noticed that the last remaining injured firefighter, Totomaru, was nowhere to be seen and that a third ambulance siren had just stopped where the first few parked. "PARAMEDICS!" The chief quickly yelled at them, making them more much faster than before. "OVER HERE!" He started to run past them, helping the firefighter from Team 1 move the injured firefighter.

The team of paramedics hurried, taking out the gurney and going towards the trio. The rest of both teams and police officers huddled over them, from all over the place, they began to spur out questions concerning about the occurring events. "Natsu are you ok?" and "How did you fall?" were all said from different people in the group, making Natsu's occurring headache worse.

"I'm going to need you all to step away from the injured firefighter." One of the medic's said as they walked over to them, still bringing the gurney.

"You heard them, go back and continue to subside the fire!" Gildarts commanded. With such a simple command, they all followed and returned to man the water hoses.

The police returned to watch the crowd and control and Gildarts stood there next to the medics and Natsu. "It looks like he suffered a few first and second degree burns on his legs, hands and some slight places in his face," Said one of the medics on the scene, inspecting Natsu. "Gonna have to remove the gear before we do anything else."

"Is that alright chief?" One of the medics asked.

"Removing the gear? Yeah that's fine," The chief said to the trio of medics. He then placed his hand over his mouth and chin. "Is he going to be alright?"

"Other than a few burns, probably a sprained leg and a concussion, yeah." One of the medics honestly told him.

"Good," the chief saw take Natsu into the ambulance, closing the doors behind them and turning on their sirens and leaving the scene. He turned back and saw both teams doing as they were told. ""Goddamn… I'm down 3 men…" He muttered to himself.

"Oi, chief!" The blonde cop called out to him, and by the way he looked, it seemed urgent.

He rushed toward him, he was near his cop car. On his hood laid something, but from Gildarts position, it was blocked by him. "What's up Laxus? By the way you sounded, it seemed important." He said.

"One of your men, Mest, handed us this thing." Laxus then showed him a boom box like device.

"What about it?" Gildarts raised an eyebrow.

Laxus raised a finger, holding him on his comment. With a simple tap on the boom box like buttons, the thing started to play. ""HELP US" "PLEASE!" "SAVE US!" The voices escaped from the box. Gildarts eyes widened as he heard the voices going from one ear to the other.

"This is…," Gildarts eyes shivered. "This is a prerecorded distress call!"

"Yup." Laxus only nodded. From the looks of it, he came up with the same conclusion as the firefighter.

Gildarts just kept listening to voices. With each voice, it kept sending goosebumps up his spine, until something came to his mind. "Before the whole explosion happened, Natsu heard a few people still stuck in the building," he then turned off the recorder. "These could've been what he heard."

"So the fire was premeditated then? Figures." Laxus sighed, leaning his back against his car.

"You think this is the work of the serial arsonist?" He asked the cop.

"That's a big escalation though," Laxus stared Gildarts, raising an eyebrow at the firefighter. "From multiple house fires to an apartment fire, that's one heck of an escalation."

"THEN WHO ELSE WOULD IT BE!?" Gildarts yelled back. With his yell, the cops, his firefighters and a few people in the crowd gave both Gildarts and Laxus shocking looks.

"Gildarts…" Laxus could hear the hurt in his friend's voice.

"He's the only one that is currently mocking our line of work!" He said, this time he lowered his voice.

"Hey, if the bastard left some more evidence like this," Laxus pointed at the recorder. "Then we'll definitely catch his ass." He reassured him. "So just chill."

Laxus patted Gildarts on the shoulder. "I guess that makes me a bit better." He tried putting up a fake smile but Laxus saw right through the firefighter.

"Hey, your men, they are going to be just fine as well, rest assured." Laxus said, looking straight at the red head.

"Oh I know they're gonna be fine, it's just…" He looked down on the floor, using his right hand to scratch the back of his neck.

"Erza?" A slight chuckle came out of both men.

"Yeah." Gildarts laugh receded.

"Oh come on now, she's a big girl, she can take on what just currently happened to Natsu." Laxus said.

"Really?" Gildarts was trying to comprehend if the blonde cop was serious or not.

"…in a parallel universe?" Laxus seemingly added a bit to his earlier sentence.

"Seriously though, those 2 have been together since they were kids, I'm surprised she's very protective of him." Gildarts admitted.

"And you can barely keep a marriage," Laxus said. "This is what? Your seventh divorce that's happening to you?"

"That is a different topic my friend." He tried to shut the cop.

"Yo! Boss!" Bacchus called out to him.

Both men looked at the firefighter. It seemed as they were conversing, both teams had managed to cease the fire from the building and had already started their investigation of the fire. Only a mixture of both gray and black smokes came out from the building. Gildarts proceeded to walk towards the firefighter near the firetruck. "What's up?" He asked him.

"You and the cop over there are gonna want to see what we discovered, boss." He said, pointing at Laxus.

With a simple gesture, Gildarts turned to look at the blonde and tilted his head, telling him to come over to the conversation. Laxus quickly told one of the other cops to look after the crowd and the already on-scene news cast team. After a couple of moments, he rushed towards their position. "What's up?" He said, fixing his hat.

"We found something in the fifth floor you guys might want to see…" Bacchus was slightly disturbed at what he looked at before telling his cohorts.

"Speak up!" Gildarts told the firefighter.

"We found something in the fifth floor you guys might want to see!" He elevated his voice more. "I-It's quite disturbing…"

"Fifth floor? Did the fire not originate from the seventh?" Gildarts was slightly shocked at the first piece of news revealed to them.

"That's what we initially thought as well, but further investigation led us to believe that the fire now originated on the fifth floor, not the seventh." Another voice entered the conversation.

Both men turned to look at the firefighter. It was one of the firefighters that helped take out Natsu, Mest. "Are you guys' definitive about your analyses you've just given me and Laxus?" Chief raised an eyebrow, just trying to be sure of their findings.

"Definitely." Both firefighters said.

"Ok, since we've sorted all of that, what about the disturbing part?" Laxus got back onto topic.

"Come with us." Bacchus got off from his leaning stance and with Mest leaded both the chief and the cop in charge into the building.

They walked through some burnt rubble and carefully went up the stairs since the fire put the elevator out of commission. After walking up the 5 sets of staircases, they made it to their floor destination. Like the first floor, they walked through some rubble from cracked walls to badly burnt furniture. They made a few turns and finally made it to where some firefighters were huddled up. They entered what seemed to be the 516 apartment room. "Over here!" Called out the female firefighter from Team 1.

They passed the living room and into the apartment's bedroom. "Holy shit!" Gildarts was the first to notice the disturbing thing that Bacchus mentioned.

"Please do not tell me that that is a body…" Laxus put his hand over his mouth, disgusted rather than shocked.

"Unfortunately, it is." The female firefighter fixed her glasses.

A moment of silence ensnared the room. "The media must not be informed," Laxus broke the silence. "You."

"Me?" He pointed at Mest.

"Yeah, go back down into the street and fetch me one of my guys. We're going to need to secure the building and call down a few of the CSI's down back from the Department." Laxus told him.

"Right!" The firefighter hurried out of the room, carrying the important message.

"Well, at least you can scratch off the serial arsonist of that list, Laxus." Gildarts told him. Even though the fire was no longer lit, the heat was still there, making him slightly sweat.

"I don't think so boss," the female firefighter walked towards the right side of the bed. She kneeled down and started picking at pieces of shard. "Pieces of an alcoholic beverage are on the

"Oh god," Gildarts put his hand over his mouth, acting like he was about to throw up. "S-She was molotoved!?"

"Oh…" Laxus felt the same nauseous affect overwhelm him. "Please tell me this person was dead before she was ignited…"

"Do I look like a damn coroner!?" She made her hand into a fist and waved it around her head. "And, yes. Signs indicate that the ignition point was that concentrated and then spread about throughout the whole building. A Molotov is one of the fewest to make this much of a ruckus."

"Are you sure Evergreen?" Gildarts asked once more, just to be on the safe side.

"Positive."

**...**

"Dr. Scarlet." A blue haired male with a white overcoat and distinctive red tattoo under and over his right eye calmly said as he entered the doctor's work area.

"Yes Dr. Fernandez?" Erza said, while scribbling and finishing up on a patient's report.

"Why aren't the reports of your patient yesterday on my desk yet?" He soon got out of the doorway and made it to her front desk.

He glanced and saw how messy her table up close was. Sticky notes everywhere, papers in different files and others were scattered. The only thing unscathed out of the bunch was a picture of her and Natsu. The picture was taken on their 3rd anniversary, when they had gone to Paris for a bit. The picture of them was both taken next to the Eiffel Tower. "Is there any reason why you're looking through my table intently?" She broke the doctor's silent induced thought sequence.

"Right," he got back on track. "Your reports, why aren't they on my desk yet?"

"I'm finishing it up right now." She scribbled down more on the paper with her black pen.

"And you couldn't finish yesterday because…?" He awaited an answer.

Erza then slowly put the pen down and stared at the nagging doctor. "Because yesterday, our patient had multiple occurring seizures due to her epilepsy," she said toward the man. "Unless you think paperwork comes first-"

"You know what, forget I asked," he cut her off midsentence. "Just turn them in when you're done writing them, right away."

She saw him leave her room. "Will do." She replied all late.

She sighed and leaned more onto her desk chair. Thank god it was one of those that spin, she usually starts spinning when a lot of stress is eating her apart. "Huh…" She heavily sighed looking directly at her ceiling. She then looked back down at her paper trail of a mess on her desk. "Dammit, I wanted to be a doctor to save lives, not do all this paperwork crap!"

Suddenly, someone knocked on her door which slightly startled her. "C-Come on in." She stuttered.

"Doctor Scarlet?" A nurse slowly came in, only opening the door halfway and only her head peeked in. The nurse had a particular white to blonde short hair.

"Yeah? Did something happened to one of my patients?" She easily jumped out of her chair.

"No, no, it's not one of your patients," she quickly assured the scarlet haired doctor. "But it's another one, in the ICU."

"The ICU?" Suddenly her eyes widen. Only people with ill like injuries or sickness are usually there. People with high risk jobs are also treated there usually, especially those in the line of work of Police or firefighter which instantly made her think of Natsu. "Does this patient have… pink hair?"

"What? No, this person has white and black hair," she raised an eyebrow at the pink hair she mentioned. "Apparently, he says he knows you."

"Black and white haired…?" She muttered to herself. Instantly, a name came to her mind. "Totomaru?"

"Yeah, that's the patient's name." The nurse said.

"Why is he in the ICU?" She asked the nurse. Suddenly, a folder was thrown onto her desk, nearing the computer's keyboard.

"It might be easier if you just look at the file right now." The nurse then closed the door and left Erza isolated again in her room, leaving her with the firefighter's file.

She skimmed through the file only to have her eyes widen. She instantly put the files in her armpit, and dashed right out her door.

After several seconds running down the stairs, which seemed faster than taking the elevator, she finally made her way to the ICU. A few burned victims were in it. "Must've been from the fire…" She said to herself. She walked around until a familiar colored haired man caught her attention.

"OW!" Totomaru said as he was being bandaged up by the male doctor.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to stay still please." The doctor said, putting some type of oil ointment on the man's face.

"You're hurting me though!" He said to the doctor, still struggling around making it almost impossible for the doctor to put the medication on him.

"Maybe if you stopped shaking, the possibility of me putting this aloe-vera more gently is more likely to happen." The doctor suggested, still had some of the ointment at the tip of his right hand fingers.

"Mm… fine." He pouted like a child, but he knew the doctor was right. He put his arms across his chest and stiffened his face. Gently, the doctor placed the ointment on his face.

"Totomaru?" Erza finally intervened after witnessing both the doctor and Totomaru stopped acting like children.

"Erza?" The doctor stopped putting the ointment, letting the firefighter turn and look at the red head. "What are you doing here?"

"I work here you idiot." She couldn't believe that he said that, after 3 years, you'd expect a friend to know where you work.

He then straighten out his back as he sat. "I don't mean it like that, I mean, what are you doing here in this part of the hospital? How did you even know I was here?"

"A nurse told me that you called me," she raised an eyebrow, this time she put her arms across her chest. "What? You suddenly have amnesia now as well?"

"Well he did fall from the 7th floor and only has a concussion." The other doctor said.

"The seventh floor?!" Erza was astonished. Not many people can survive a fall from that high and have minor bruises like him.

"Most of his gear took the damage for him." The other doctor continued on with his work.

"Go figure." Erza said.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," he said coming back to his original topic. "No, it's because, I didn't think you'd actually come," he scratched above the wrapped bandages over his forehead. "I thought you'd be handling some other patients."

"I was earlier but before I came here, I was doing some paperwork." She said.

"Paperwork? I thought all of you were doctors!?" He now scratched his cheek.

"We are," she elaborated. "The paperwork is to keep in a count for our patients."

"And their symptoms." The other doctor added. Ironically, he was doing paperwork of his own.

"Geez…" Totomaru just laid back on the bed once more.

"As I was reading your files," Erza took one of the seats and sat right at the end of the bed. "There was something that caught my eye…"

"The other firefighter?" He instantly knew what the topic was.

"Yeah… was it-"

"No, it wasn't Natsu that was caught in the explosion with me," he instantly assured her. "It was Macao."

"Macao? Is he alright?" She couldn't believe it. Before his divorce with his wife Rose, which was almost a year ago, he, her and their son, Romeo, would go fishing; just to pass the time and have fun.

"When the explosion occurred, a piece of wood, big one, flew right into his abdomen…." He tried to hold back his tears. "I'm… trying to be very optimistic right now."

"I-I have to go check up on him." Her skid the floor as she quickly got off of it.

"Juvia is with him," he stopped her in her tracks. "You should go check up on Natsu instead."

She froze up, standing there letting the flow of time go through her. "N-Natsu?" She turned to look back him. In her mind, she was really hoping she heard wrong.

"Yeah," he looked at her. With her face frozen like that, he could tell that she was trying to process the new information in front of her. "No one told you your husband was here?" He asked her.

"No! What happened to him!?" She asked the fellow firefighter.

"Before the explosion came about, Natsu and I had heard another family, begging for help," he told her like if it was a story. "I was in bad shape from an earlier but weak explosion and my gas tank was almost out, his wasn't and was still in better shape." He tried to recollect the rest of the memories and continued again. "He went to go check up on it, it wasn't before Macao came through the window to come check up on us."

"What else happened?" She asked him.

"And I went to Macao's location, from where we were, we watched Natsu stare into the fiery hall," he closed his eyes, helping him remember the next part. "Then I pointed out to him that the roof above him was weakening."

"And then?" In her mind, she tried visualizing the events, predicting what would happen next. Nervous on the inside, all of the conclusions to all possible outcomes do no favor to her.

His eyes were still closed. Like a psychic trying to picture the future, Totomaru instead tried to remember the last bit of info from his brain. "Ah," he snapped his fingers. "The floor below him caved in!"

"But I thought you said the floor above him?" She now questioned whether the fall didn't cause anymore head injuries.

"It's what I and Macao initially thought until, well, the floor under him took him down with him." He said.

"Oh god… I have to be with him right now!" She quickly dashed away, startling the other doctors, nurses and patients.

"At least I'm alright." Totomaru said to her before she completely left the vicinity of the ICU.

"Just shut up already." His doctor advised him.

After several minutes of hind search, Erza managed to find a nurse who saw the man descripted as Natsu. **Room 507,** Erza thought to herself as she sprinted around the hospital, going from corridor to corridor. **There it is!**

She decelerated her pace as she made herself closer to the room. She then controlled her breathing, slowing down her heartbeat. All the things that Totomaru said to her made her worried a bit, her hands trembling, her thoughts were scattered and small drops of sweat dripped down on her forehead. This was the first time she's ever been scared in her life.

From outside the window, she can barely see anything. The curtains were unfolded and made the vision to look in blurry. She sighed and knew she had to face her husband dead on. Slowly opened the door and walked in. "Natsu?"


	2. A Drunken Mess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You fucking idiot, stop pointing around that gun like that!" Laxus unholstered and drew his gun at the man. He saw he that his movement was rather impatient, walking at near the end of the patient's bed. "This isn't you!"
> 
> "I'm sorry Laxus, but I can't do that!" The red haired man pointed the gun again the badly burnt and bandaged man. "Not after all the pain this bastard has brought to many people…"
> 
> "I swear to God, Gildarts!" Laxus put his gun near his right eye, aiming at him. "If you pull up that gun one more time at him, I would not hesitate to shoot you!"
> 
> "Go ahead." He drew it up once more, provoking his friend to fire his gun. A small tear seeped out of his left and down it strolled his cheek it went.
> 
> No use, he couldn't bear the thought of shooting his friend. "Fucking bastard, stop it!"
> 
> "I'm sorry Laxus." Gildarts placed his finger on the trigger

_**A few days earlier…** _

Natsu was coming back to his consciousness. His vision was rather blurry and his hearing was hearing the sounds of turned on TV. "Ow, my head…" He placed his hand over his head. He felt the small bandages on his face that covered a few of his burns from the accident.

His vision had even out and saw himself inside the very hospital his wife worked at, in his own room. To his right, he saw the TV turned on to the news were the reporters were reporting the massive fire he and his team were trying to put out; it seemed they were successful in doing so. He also saw his firefighting gear neatly folded on one of the seats near the window.

Although he was focused on his right side, a small gentle snore caught his attention from his left. "Wha-" He quickly turned his head and saw his wife, Erza sleep next to him.

Her head rested on her hands on the left side of his bed, leaning on it while she sat on one of the chairs that were near the window and door. "Zzzzz…" She snored lowly, almost inaudible.

Natsu smiled and put his hand on her head, petting her hair. "Huh, obviously you'd be the first person I find when I woke up." He continued to pet her hair.

"Hmm," she too was waking up from her slumber. She yawned and stretched her arms above her head and opened her eyes. "Oh, hey Natsu…" she greeted him. Within seconds, she realized that her husband had woken up. "NATSU!" She quickly got up from her chair and instantly went to hug him.

"Hey, Erz," he said, embracing her for a bit before his body started to ache from his pain. "Ow, ow!"

"Oh, sorry," she quickly stopped her hugging and came down from the bed. "I'm just happy that you're ok."

"You know me Erza," he got comfortable again on his bed. "I'm always going to be ok."

"Speaking of ok," she looked at his leg. She had looked at his medical report before falling into deep slumber. "Are your legs ok?"

"My right leg feels tingly," he looked specifically at his right leg. "All in all though, they feel fine."

Erza walked up to the end side of the bed. She grabbed the clipboard which hanged from the end side of the bed. With her right hand, she took out the pen from the top of the clipboard and poked at Natsu's leg. "Can you feel this?" She said as she continued to lightly poke at them, primarily his right one.

"Yeah, I feel that." He clarified her about the poking.

"Hmm, ok." She went to the clipboard to examine what the doctors wrote about Natsu's current condition.

"What's it say?" He asked her. He then saw her grip the pen she sued to poke him a bit harder, making him a bit worried.

"Well," she turned to the next page and scribed down. "The ME report says that your right fibula, tibia and lower calcaneus were damaged during the fall from the 7th floor to the 5th floor and the debris landing on your legs, mainly on the right leg." She continued reading the rest of the report to him. "Your gear seemed to have absorbed most of the damage done to your back, but they only put ointment for the burns and bandages as well."

"That sounds pretty serious… the first part anyways." He looked at her for a few seconds before looking back at his right foot.

"It is," she put the clipboard between her left arm and armpit. "In a couple days, the main injury to your leg should heal. Afterwards, you're going to have to start physical therapy."

"Physical therapy!?" He said as he thought about his junior year of high school at Magnolia High. During a football game, another player from the opposing team had tackled Natsu from behind his right leg, causing serious damage to both of his anterior and posterior ligaments. "Ugh…" He hunched his head into his chest, pouting.

"Hey," she moved in closer, sitting down on the bed, moving her hand closer to his, feeling his warmth. "Don't worry, I was with you back in high school, I'm with you again here."

Although he was still a bit sad, her words were rather encouraging to hear, making him give her a rather nice and bright smile. "Thanks Erza, what would I do without you?"

"Hmm," she leaned in, giving him a kiss on his cheek. "Now, I have tons of work I have to do and lots of patients I have to save." She got up from the bed and proceeded to leave the room. "I'll come back during my lunch break, ok?"

"Got it," he said to her. "Wait, Erza."

She placed her right hand on the side of the door, helping her stop in the midst of her tracks. She turned to look at her husband. "Yeah?" She answered.

"Can you go and give me crutches?" He asked, somewhat sweating.

"You can't walk right now," she put her right hand on her hip. "Your leg is sprained, remember?"

"I know, I know, but…" he hunched over, putting his arms around his stomach. "I really need to use the bathroom."

"Oh, hold up give me a minute." She went out of the room and went to the nearest nurse's station on the floor.

She walked about four rooms to the left of Natsu's room until she finally made it to the nearest nurse station. She saw a rather familiar brown haired nurse who so happily wore cat ears. "Already embracing the Halloween spirit there, Millianna?" She said to her, startling the nurse to look in the direction she was coming up.

"Oi, hey there Erza!" Millianna greeted the red. While she sat on her rolling chair, with a simple move, she quickly came to the nurse's table where Erza stood in front of. "Yeah. What you need?"

"I need a pair of crutches." Erza requested of the nurse.

"Alrighty," She went behind the desk, getting the pair of crutches that were on the shelf. "Here you go." She said, showing it to Erza. "For your husband?"

"Y-Yeah," she leaned over the desk and grabbed the crutches. "How'd you know?"

"Nurse Gossip gets around quickly around here, ya know?" Millianna told her.

"Figured much," she sighed about the sudden news. She remembered she had a patient on this floor and quickly skimmed through the pile of files to look for the patient's medical file. "Hey, Millianna."

"Yeah?" Millianna was on the computer when she answered Erza.

"Where's my patient's file?" She asked, leaving the pile of files alone now.

"Oh, after the chief heard that your husband was here from an accident, he had told your assistants to watch over your patients." Millianna revealed to her that much.

"Really? That was nice of them to do so," she was rather surprised at that news. "So, does that mean I have a free day?"

"I guess," Millianna continued to type on the keyboard. "So why'd you need those crutches?"

Her last question made her remember why she was here in the first place. "Crap, gotta go." She quickly turned around and went back to her husband's room.

As she walked in, a rather unpleasant and familiar smell of smoke entered her lungs. "What the he- Juvia?" She saw the bluenette take a seat near one of the chairs next to the door.

"Oh, hey there Erza," she greeted the doctor as she came in. "Juvia was wondering why you have those crutches?"

"Oh, these were for…" she quickly scanned the room for Natsu, who seemed to have disappeared. "Where's Natsu?"

"Oh, he went to the bathroom over there." The bluenette firefighter pointed at the door that was on the far side of the room, opposite of where they stood.

"OI, ERZA!" Natsu yelled from inside the bathroom. "YOU THERE!?"

"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO WAIT UNTIL I GOT THE CRUTCHES YOU IDIOT!" She yelled from the outside. Her yelling got the attraction of a few wandering nurses and doctors from outside the room, staring at her. She ignored them though.

"Sorry!" He apologized for not following her orders. "I really needed to go to the bathroom though!"

"Huh…" She sighed but didn't seem no longer to scold her husband. "Ok, well I brought your crutches now."

The sound of the toilet being flushed was heard from inside the bathroom. Seconds later, the faucet sink. Soon came out Natsu from inside the room. "Oh, thanks." He said, approaching her by dragging his right leg.

"Here, let me help you." She put the clipboard back in its place, placed the crutches standing still on the side of the bed and helped him. She put his right arm over her neck and continued to walk him the rest of the way.

"Thanks." He placed himself under the cover as before.

Erza immediately turned to look at the bluenette. "How's Macao doing?" She asked about his current condition.

"Juvia doesn't know…" her eyes stared at the floor, releasing a small but noticeable tear. "As I told Natsu before he ventured into the bathroom…" She wiped away her tear from her left cheek. "The doctors told Juvia that his survival rate is very low."

"How low?" Erza asked, taking the seat next to Juvia and put her right hand on Juvia's left shoulder in hopes of trying to comfort the firefighter.

"Juvia can't seem to recall the numbers given to her by the doctors…" She continued to sob, covering her eyes with her rather worn out firefighter gloves.

"Pfft," Natsu's rather loud grunt made both girls stare at him, putting his arms across his chest. "Macao is one tough S.O.B, he's going to pull through in no time."

"Juvia hopes you're right about that…" Juvia still sobbed.

Just as Juvia's sobbing had subsided, a few more guests joined the party. "Yo!" Laxus the commanding officer of the MPD came in first, followed by Gildarts who was in the same rank as the officer but for the Fire Department, and then came in two other _grunt_ cops, one held what seemed to be a sketch book and the other stood in front of the door, almost as he's guarding it. Last but not least that came in was a familiar black haired, leaned and muscled firefighter, Mest.

"Afternoon chiefs, Mest, and officer," Erza greeted them as they came in. "I could understand why Gildarts and Elfman are here but…"

"But what?" Laxus tried to figure out what Erza was getting at with her sudden assumption.

"Why is the commander of the police force," she then looked at the other two officers. "A police sketch artist and another officer, who seems like he's guarding the door, here?"

"Well," Laxus fixed his hat, uncomfortable about the news he's about to give her. "Mest here found something at the crime scene that was rather… disturbing."

"And what does this news have to do with you all barging in here?" She continued to press on with her questions.

"Well, Mest told that as he pulled out Natsu from the debris that was on top of his legs," Laxus retold the events of what occurred a few hours ago. "Natsu had said somethings to Mest, and was also the one that identified the disturbing thing he had picked out."

"Can you skip to the point?" Erza didn't like to be stuck in idle.

"R-Right," Laxus turned to look at Natsu who was listening in to the conversation. "Your husband saw the serial arsonist we've been trying to catch."

"Wait a minute," Erza then turned her attention to that of her husband's. "You saw the arsonist?" She then turned back to look Laxus. "Does that mean he's endangered!?"

"We don't know that for sure," Laxus tried to answer her questions as best as he could. "That's why we're here, to ask Natsu some important questions."

"Oi, Natsu." Gildarts tried to get the injured firefighter's attention.

Everybody saw that Natsu was rather stuck in a trance like thought induced sequence. Erza went up to him, and quickly went to her husband's side. "Honey?" She asked grabbing and holding his right hand.

Natsu remembered. Even though he was mostly half conscious, he could remember the set of events that occurred exactly how they went down. "…"

_**Flashback…** _

_Natsu was coming back from his little slumber, finding himself laid out on his back on the floor. He felt a slight ill like pain shivering up his spine; his oxygen had broken his fall but left him with an agitating pain. He was disoriented, his eyesight was seeing double of everything while his hearing was heating echoes of the screams of the family he intended to save. His back was burning up with every second laid on the floor, the oxygen tank made no difference in height gap between his back and the floor. He tried getting up but the fall took a toll on him. He wasted his breath trying to turn to either left or right side. He looked up and to his surprise a fellow firefighter was in front of him, upside from his point. "H... Hey..." He weakly said to him, stretching out his arm towards him._

_Suddenly the firefighter stood over Natsu, looking down on him. On his right, Natsu noticed the firefighter carrying something rectangular. "HELP US" "PLEASE!" "SAVE US!" All of the voices emitted from the thing he carried._

_Natsu didn't know if he was hallucinating those voices or not. He took one quicker look at the firefighter that stood in front of him. Right there, he knew he was impersonating a firefighter. He then looked into his eyes. Like a scorched Earth, his eyes were red. No one on his team had peculiar eyes like his. "W... Who are... you...?" He mustered up the words, coughing into his mask._

_The man with red eyes came closer to Natsu, lunging on one of his knees and facing Natsu face to face. "You already know about me," he gave out a short wry laugh. As much as Natsu wanted to knock the man out, he couldn't. One of his legs got stuck under burning rubble, eating away his fireproof gear. To add to his situation, he can barely see straight and had trouble staying up. "You are in no shape to fight me, now be a good boy and stay put while you burn in this pit of hell." The man stopped lunging, walking away from Natsu and heading into another corridor. He left the rectangular box still emitting the cries a few feet away from Natsu._

_**Present** _

"…"

"Natsu, honey?" Erza tried once more to get his attention. His trance made her spine tingle slightly, fearing what he was thinking in his head.

"HEY, NATSU!" Gildarts yelled once more, this time snapping him back to reality.

"Red eyes…" Natsu lowly said to them.

"What now?" Laxus didn't really catch what he said, prompting him to ask Natsu to repeat themselves.

"He had red eyes," Natsu spoke louder and clearer than before. "And firefighter gear as well."

"Firefighter gear?" Both chiefs' eyes were close knitted, confused at that particular information given to them by the firefighter.

"What do you mean by firefighter gear?" The sketch artist asked him, seemingly stopping his hand which was drawing. "Like whole body outfit or just gear like oxygen tank or head gear?"

"Like everything, _everything,_ " Natsu, with the use of his left hand, moved it up and down from his head to the lower half of his body, sort of like he's telling them about the attire of the arsonist's. "From top to bottom, he looked exactly like one of us!"

"Hmm…" Gildarts put his hand under his chin, thinking.

"What is it?" Laxus turned to look at Gildarts.

"Remember that one dry cleaners that was robbed near the Fire Station that we use to clean our uniforms?" Gildarts asked him about that certain burglary.

"Oh, I remember that burglary," Mest knew what the Chief was talking about. "The owner there got shot and according to owner and her daughter, the man took all the money and-"

"And took one of our uniforms." Juvia ended the retelling of that anecdote.

"Yeah." Both Gildarts and Mest said in unity.

"Are you even sure that case and the certain string of fires are connected?" Laxus had his doubts but he's a policeman at heart, he had to be sure before just going with assumptions and gut instincts. "I mean, that could just be coincidental. The store was robbed, what? 7 months ago? And the string of fires started to occur not even 2 months ago. Not enough for the DA to make the connections."

"Oh come on Laxus," Gildarts tried to persuade his cop friend-fellow. "Are you really sure you want to go down that road? Draw bridges for God's sake!"

"Sorry, but until we have more evidence about them being the same person," Laxus lowered his cap. "I can't take that big leap."

"I have an idea." The sketch artist took everyone's attention.

"What is it officer?" Laxus and the others attention where reverted to the sketch artist.

"Why don't we just compared what Natsu saw and what the owner saw?" The sketch artist proposed his idea to the others, hopefully they take it in.

"Not a bad idea you have there, kid," Gildarts smacked the sketch artist's back, causing him to fluster a bit and his hat to somewhat come out of his head. "How about it Laxus?"

"Hmmm, I suppose that'd be better than assuming." He huffed and sighed.

"Alright, Mr. Dragneel," the sketch artist took one of the empty chairs next to Juvia, placed it next to the bed and sat on it. "You're going to have to tell me specifically how the eyes-"

Suddenly, one more party joined, yelling and interrupting the artist mid-sentence. "I FOUND YOU GUYS!" Came in another firefighter, the same one female firefighter that was able to identify the source of the fire in the apartment complex. She panted, very quickly as if she had run all over the hospital.

"Whoa now," Gildarts had gone up to the firefighter. "Take it easy, what's the hurry, Evergreen?"

"I-It's… _huh_ … Macao…" She said, holding onto her gut and taking in deep breath. "The doctors… said… _huh_ … he's… failing!"

"WHAT!?" A sudden amount of gasps and sudden sobbing of Juvia was heard throughout the room.

"I'm going!" Gildarts said, dashing out of the rom faster than he entered it.

"I'm going too!" Both Mest and Laxus rushed off into the hall, following the fire department's chief.

Without much say, both female firefighters quickly followed behind both males, leaving the one cop guarding the room and the other continuously still asking questions about the arsonist's face features.

"Now, where were we?" The sketch artist was getting back to the topic at hand, looking at both Erza and Natsu.

…

Like a rat in a maze, Gildarts and the others right behind him were running around the hospital, dodging patients and doctors alike. The red haired behemoth finally found the staircase which led right directly to ER room in which his fellow wounded firefighter Macao was receiving his care.

He pushed in the door to the staircase and made his way to the first floor. Although, the door did not rest as the others made their way down as well. **1,** Gildarts saw the number right above the door as he stepped on the last step of the staircase. He went through the door, turned right and immediately saw his _grunt_ firefighters huddled about in the middle of the hall. "Hey!" He called out to them as he ran towards them.

"Yo boss." A rather tall, muscled white haired man, was the first to greet him as he and the others got to their position in the hall.

"What's… the… current… situation?" The chief stopped right by them, putting his hands on his knees as he hunched over to take a sudden burst of breathes. Right behind him stopped the other firefighters and the police chief, doing the exact same thing he was doing.

"Just before Evergreen left to tell you," a rather small male firefighter spoke from the huddled bunch explained. "The doctor was immediately called back in before he could tell us any more information on Macao."

"Huh…" Gildarts was no longer in benched position and proceeded to face his men as he stood straight. "Thank you Eve for the information. I hope he's doing okay…"

"You don't sound rather optimistic at the moment, boss." The muscled male firefighter who greeted him earlier, seemed to have noticed his boss' change of tone.

"I kind of don't, Elfman," he took one of the seats that was placed near the ER. He took his helmet off, revealing his red hair, and laid his head on the wall. "Not since my wife died."

It's been at least 6 almost 7 years since his first wife, Cornelia died. Died of Leukemia. He and his 21-year-old daughter, Cana took it very hard. He hardly goes home nowadays and when he does, Cana is laying on the floor drunk and passed out. But for the last 2 months, she had gone to AA, _Alcoholics Anonymous_ , to try to get her act straighten out. His co-workers and a few distant family members know of what he's been going through.

"Cheer up, Gildarts," the blonde cop took the seat right next to him, patting his shoulder in hopes of if doing something to liven him up. "I mean this might not actually be your worst year yet."

Gildarts facepalmed at his remark. "W-Was that somehow supposed to make me feel better?" He asked, hoping it wasn't much of a rhetorical question.

"…it did the opposite didn't it?" Laxus sweat dropped.

The firefighters all slightly laughed out at their little skirmish. It wasn't until they all quieted down and realized that someone was coming out of the ER room in which their fallen comrade was being treated in.

"How is he Doctor?" Gildarts got up from his chair along with Laxus and stood in front of his firefighters like he was leading a pack of wolves.

"…" The doctor looked down on the floor and fixed his glasses.

His uncomfortable silence made the firefighters worry a bit. "Doctor?" Gildarts tried once more in getting information out of him.

"I don't really know how to say this…" The Doc could barely look at them.

"Oh my…" Without much, both Evergreen and Juvia started to sob, a few of the men silently sobbed, and Gildarts and Laxus could only stare in awe.

Gildarts broke down, falling to his knees and started to punch on the floor. "DAMMIT!" The flowing stream of tears falling down from his cheeks hit the floor under him. "Dammit… dammit…"

"I-I'm sorry," the doctor apologized for the information. "This might sound insensitive but I have a lot of paperwork to do." He started to walk the opposite direction but soon stopped. "His body is in there, if you want to say a few words before we put him in the morgue… "

He walked away now, leaving the sobbing firefighters to themselves.

"Gildarts…" Laxus put his hand on his friend's shoulder, looking at his emotionally broken friend. His hat covered his eyes and the only visible feature in his face were two small but still able to see stream of tears. "Come on man, it's… It's going to be okay…"

…

At a common bar known as the _Strauss Bar_ , sat Gildarts already a couple of drinks in. "Keep them coming Lisanna…" Gildarts asked for another shot.

"I think you've had enough already there Gildarts." A white haired lady, cleaning one of her beer mugs, clarified on the amount of drinks she had already given the scarlet haired firefighter.

"NO!" Although his tone said no about his current situation, the way he moved around his small glass cup suggested otherwise. "GIVE ME MORE!"

"I think it's about time I called your daughter to come and pick you up." She stopped drying her mugs and went out to the back.

"Yyyy-you have a funny face." He said to the other customer who sat a few seats away from him.

Lisanna started to dial the phone just as her brother came in to check on his boss. "Hey sis," he greeted her as he came down the stairs from the second floor. "How's Gildarts doing out there?"

"He's stupidly drunk now," she said, waiting for Cana to pick up the phone. "I'm calling his daughter right now so she can pick him up."

"I don't blame for trying to forget the day by flooding himself with alcohol," Elfman sighed. "Better than what I did."

"Crying yourself in the bath tub is much more mature than drinking yourself to death," she gave him her honest opinion on his way of grieving. "Come on Cana pick up."

Cana finally picked. "Hello?" She asked.

"Cana, its Lisanna." She answered.

"Yeah? What's up?" From her line, Lisanna could hear the brunette yawn.

"Can you come and pick up your dad? He's stinking drunk at the moment." She requested of her.

"My dad is drunk?" Cana couldn't remember the last time her father had gotten drunk. It's probably been years.

"Yeah," Cana's tone made Lisanna realize that she wasn't caught up with today's events. "Did your father tell you what happened today?"

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Your dad didn't tell you that Macao died today?" She gave her the sudden news through the phone.

"Macao died?" Lisanna heard Cana's sudden burst of shock through the phone. "Oh my…"

"Yeah, I'm sorry." She apologized.

"Yeah, yeah," she could hear the small but audible sobs coming from Cana. "I'll… I'll go pick up my dad right."

"Ok, thank you." Lisanna said right before hanging up the phone.

"She's coming to pick him up?" Elfman asked as he sat down on the bottom staircase.

"Yeah," she turned around and headed back into the bar. "Well I got to head back, keep an eye on her father if he does anything hasty."

"Alright sis," Elfman got up from his seat and headed back upstairs to their apartment. "If you need anything just holler."

"Alright."

As she entered the bar, Gildarts had fallen asleep on one of the billiards table. "At least he's not throwing around beer mugs and breaking stuff…" She lowly said to herself, grateful that Gildarts did not act like the other type of drunks that pass through her bar.

"Hey ma'am, serve me another drink will you?" The man with the _funny face_ asked the bartender, putting the mug by his face.

"Sure will." She proceeded to give the man his request.

20 almost 25 minutes had passed by and a certain long haired brunette with a white long sleeved jacket came into the bar. "Hey." She greeted Lisanna the bartender.

"Your dad is right over there," she pointed at the first billiards table right at the end of the room. "Are you going to need help with taking your dad?"

"No I got this." She stretched her arms out, making a crackling sound as she did. She walked towards her laying drunk beat father and carried him on her back.

"Whoa, Cana." Lisanna was astonished the brunette's monster strength.

"What? My sponsor from AA told me I should exercise," She said, explaining how she got the muscle to pick her dad like a bird's feather. "So I did."

"Oh well see you around then at campus." Lisanna said goodbye toward her.

Cana opened and exited out the bar while carrying her father. Her car, which was a dark 2007 Toyota Corolla, was only a few feet away from them. She walked towards it, opening the right backseat door and placing him there. His sleep state body took up the whole back. She closed it and immediately went around to go to the driver's seat. She turned the engine on and drove off.

After 20 minutes or so, she turned, driving into the alley and making it to the 5 house to the right which had a garage. With her car keys, she simply pressed the OPEN button and well, the rest is self-explanatory. "Huh…" she turned off the car, closed the garage door and looked back at her snoring father. "Well we're here."

She got out of her seat and opened the car's left backseat door. "Come on dad," she proceeded to carry him on her back once more, kicking the car door in and closing it. She walked along the rugged path which led to the back door of the house. She got her keys, opened it and had gone inside with her father. "Looks like the tables have turned, eh, dad?" She made her way through the kitchen into the living room and up the stairs. The first room to the right was her father's room. She kicked open the door, revealing his rather clean room.

"Okay dad," she threw her drunken father onto the bed. "Goodnight."

Suddenly, her hand was grabbed by her father's. "Don't leave," he may be drunk but he was still pretty much aware of what was happening. Her daughter turned to look at him. "Please."

She saw his eyes get watery, managing to keep a straight face together before falling apart once more. "Ok." She smiled at him.

She took a seat to where he laid his head, prompting her to put his head on her laps and hugged him like a mother would hug her son after he hurt himself too much from a straining activity. "First your mother… and now Macao…" He clinched onto her jacket, wetting it with his tears.

"I know dad; I know…" She stayed with him until his sobbing stopped, finally going into deep slumber.

…

Back at the hospital, Natsu was all alone in his room. Erza had left a while ago, and the only thing he could grieve Macao's death is by watching reruns of the _X-Files_ on channel 12, which was excruciating.

Suddenly, his door was opened slightly, showing a man with blue hair and an odd tattoo overlooking above and under his right eye. "Hello there." He greeted as he came in, closing the door behind him.

"Who are you?" Natsu looked at the odd man. From his appearance, Natsu could see that his fashion was rather classic in taste, wearing a nice black leather jacket and dark pants.

"Oh, how rude of me," the person in front of him got a chair from where they were near the door and placed it right at the end of the bed and sat down on it reversed. "I'm Jellal Fernandez, I'm your wife's boss."

"Jellal?" The way Natsu's tongue said his name sounded weird to him. "That's an odd name."

"So is Natsu, so don't start taking shots at me boy." Jellal told the pinkette.

"Fair enough," Natsu crossed his arms around his chest. "Seems like you already know my name."

"Well I did look through your files," Jellal admitted to Natsu about how he knew his first name. "And I'm sorry about that."

"No problem, considering you're a doctor and all," Natsu didn't seem bother by that bit of information. "Now, if you started saying my social security number and what not, then we'd have a problem."

Both men laughed at the small joke. "Don't worry," Jellal stopped his laugh. "Your medical history can only provide so little."

"So, you're my wife's boss?" Natsu got back on track. "So you're like the super doctor?"

"No, I'm just the Dean of Medicine here at Magnolia Hospital," Jellal specified his rank amongst the others. "Basically, I'm everyone's boss."

"Heh, so what's a guy like you visiting me for?" Natsu questioned the man's motives.

"Erza wanted me to check up on you one last time before I left." He told him.

"Figured much." Natsu sighed.

"I also heard about your fellow firefighter friend, my condolences." Jellal had heard off Macao's passing. Word does travel fast around the hospital.

"Hmm, thanks," he took his words in his mind. "I guess."

Jellal then turned to look at the TV, to see what the pinkette was watching. " _ **And now back to the X-Files marathon…**_ "

"The _X-Files_? You're watching that?" He turned to look back at Natsu.

"Unfortunately," Natsu put his head back onto the pillow. "If I hear that theme song one more time, I'm going to kill somebody…"

"Why don't you just change it?" Jellal sweat dropped at his threat.

"THE DAMN NURSE TOOK THE REMOTE CONTROL!" He yelled.

"Give me a minute," Jellal got up from his chair, took it and placed it under the TV which hanged in the corner of the room next to the door. He stepped on the chair, standing on it and to the far right bottom of the TV he pressed the power button and turned it off. "Better?"

"Much better." Natsu took in a heavy breath.

"So have you experienced _denial_ yet?" Jellal blurted out to Natsu.

"W-What?" He confused at what the bluenette told him.

"Denial," he talked to Natsu as if he knew what he was talking about. "You know? 7 Stages of Grief."

"Oh," Natsu finally understood his funny talk. "That, I don't think so."

"Well like the name suggests, there are 7 Stages," Jellal put the chair back near the end of the bed and sat down in the same position. "The first is Shock, the second is Denial, third is Bargaining, fourth is Guilt, fifth is Anger, sixth is Depression, and last but not least, Acceptance."

"Maybe it hasn't hit me yet…" Natsu lowly said. "Then again, I wasn't really that close with Macao, like my boss, Gildarts, was."

"It will eventually," Jellal told him. "I guess."

"You talk like you have experience on the topic," Natsu could feel that Jellal tried to sympathize with him. "Did you lose somebody close to you?"

"My father," Jellal said. "Died before he could see the man I've become."

"How did he die?" Natsu asked, hoping he'd get an answer of the sort.

"I was 11 at the time. It was after me, my mom and dad came out of the movie theater," he started the life event from long ago. "As we cut through the alley, a mugger came by shot my mother and father, taking their jewelry and leaving me be with them. Although, I had gone to get help, an ambulance came by a few minutes later…"

"What happened next?" Natsu asked.

"Well by the time the ambulance made it to the hospital, my father died but my mother barely survived," Jellal heavily sighed, still a bit overwhelmed at his anecdote. "It's been almost 19 years since I last saw his face."

"Well at least you knew your father…" Natsu looked down at the bed.

"What do you mean by that?" Jellal wondered the meaning of his words.

"I never met my father," Natsu now began his story. "It was always just me and my Grandfather, Igneel."

"You lived with your Grandfather?" Jellal continued with his own questions now. "What happened to your mother?"

"Igneel told me she died in a car crash when I was 2 years old," he explained the situation with his mother. "My father abandoned us right after I was born, so there's that as well."

"Wow, I didn't know that…" Jellal's stomach quenched.

"That's alright," Natsu understood how Jellal must've felt. "Ah well, it's getting rather late, shouldn't you be heading home?"

"Well I got no one waiting for me at home, so I could practically leave any time I want to." Jellal answered his question.

"I guess." Natsu couldn't argue with that statement.

"Hey, you know how to play chess?" Jellal just blurted out.

"The black and white pieces? No," Natsu answered. "But I do know how to play checkers."

"Eh checkers ain't that fun." Jellal said his opinion on checkers.

"What? Afraid I'll beat you?" Natsu smirked, hopefully his way of persuasion would convince Jellal to challenge him.

"Afraid? Tch, fine I'll play in Checkers." Jellal got up from his chair and went out of the room to get the board game which resided in a cabinet near the nearest nurse station.

He came back 5 minutes later, with the board game at hand. "Seat right there." Natsu pointed at the end of the bed.

"Your leg is there though." Jellal said.

Natsu then crossed his legs, letting the Dean of Medicine sit where his legs once resided. "There, now stop whining and let's get to it!" Natsu was pumped.

"Huh, fine," He annoyingly sighed. He sat, where Natsu requested, in the same way he did, with his legs crossed. He laid the board and checker pieces in the middle space between the two of them. "I'll take the red pieces." He said as he claimed all the red checker pieces.

"That means I get to move first." Natsu claimed the black checker pieces.

Both men placed their pieces in their respective opposite color positions on the board. "Not that I need the first move anyways." Confident, Jellal placed his last piece on the board at the same time as Natsu.

"You sound very confident about that." Natsu said to him, starting the game by moving his far left red piece diagonally.

"Hey, you don't get to be boss around here unless you have that trait." Jellal moved second, placing his black checker piece opposite to that of Natsu's.

"Well you work with my wife," Natsu moved the next red checker, which was next to the one he moved earlier. "No one can boss her around."

"I…" Jellal thought through his next move. "I… have no rebuttal for that statement."

"Then you have met the _Hell hath no Fury_ side of her…" Natsu waited for Jellal to move his piece.

"If you're talking about her bossy and stubborn side of her, then yes, I have met it…" Jellal could still picture Erza's first day at work. He remembered the scarlet haired doctor threw a clipboard at him for refusing her advice on a patient. He chuckled at the thought.

"Nope," Natsu moved the very first piece he had moved. "Well I guess, that can be that side." Natsu could still remember that he had accidentally eaten some of her cake. She was so mad at him, she didn't talk to him for a whole week, even after apologizing to her a thousand times. "She can express herself more or so, back at home."

"I don't really like talking bad about someone behind their backs…" Jellal sweat dropped, now taking his turn.

" _Talk bad_? These are more like compliments," Natsu moved his red checker, taking yet another black checker piece away from Jellal. "Besides, she'd know when we would talk bad about her."

"What do you mean by that?" Jellal was a bit confused at his last verbal comment.

"She has like this Sixth sense," Natsu further explained his earlier statement. "Whenever anyone talks ill about her, she'd know. Whenever I do something behind her back, she'd know." He looked back through his thoughts. There was a time he had told her a white lie about how he was sick and missed her piano concert but instead he went to a friend's party back when they were still in high school. The next day, without her saying much, Natsu knew by her face expression that'd she knew what he did and scolded him. From that day forward, he told her everything he does before doing so. Well sort of.

"It's your turn." Jellal told him, reverting the pinkette back into their reality.

"Oh, right." Natsu scratched his head and moved his third piece taking another black checker piece.

What seemed like minutes to them was actually hours, continuously playing game after game, and either one winning or losing.

"OK, this will be the last game." Jellal said, as he rubbed his eyes with both of his hands.

"I guess; we're tied 499 to 499." Natsu had counted the many games they've won.

Just as they were setting their pieces, a third party joined in, entering the room. "Hmm, Dr. Fernandez? What are you doing in here?" A familiar scarlet haired female with a black jacket, a white blouse underneath it and blue jeans with low top heels carrying a medium sized black purse on her right shoulder, said as she opened the door, letting a cold breeze into the room as she did.

"Erza, what are you doing here?" Natsu asked his wife, who stood in front of both men.

"It's 7 a.m., almost 8." She said, telling them the time as well.

"WHAT!?" Jellal suddenly stood on top of the bed and checked his wrist watch. **7:58 a.m.** "HOLY CRAP! WE'VE BEEN PLAYING SINCE 10 P.M, YESTERDAY!"

"You've been playing… checkers all night?" Erza said it in a tone which sounded a bit awry.

"Well, not anymore," Jellal got off the bed, leaving the checker pieces on Natsu's bed. "I'm very tired."

"Guess we're going to have to play the tie breaker later I guess." Natsu stretched his legs out, moving the board and board pieces along the bed with his legs.

"Well, I'm going to take a nap in my office," Jellal put his hand over his mouth, covering his yawn as he walked out. "See you Natsu."

"See you." Natsu waved back at Jellal, leaving his wife and him alone in the room.

"Oh, Erza." Jellal stopped in the midst of his tracks, calling the scarlet haired doctor.

"Yes?" She turned to look at the bluenette doctor.

"I finished your report, so you don't have to worry about." He said as he started to walk again.

"T-Thanks." She thanked him, just before he disappeared into the crowd of other doctors and nurses. Erza turned to look back at her husband. "What was that?"

"You act as if I cheated on you with him," Natsu put his arms under his backside of his head. "We were just conveniently playing checkers almost all night, without knowing the time. Nothing more."

"… I guess." Although she still felt somewhat weird of the thought of her husband and her boss together. Nothing happened besides playing a harmless board game. She did however turn slightly red, fantasying about Natsu and Jellal.

"I know that face," Natsu could see his wife's rather red glowing face. "Y-You just fantasized me and him together, didn't you!?"

"I-I DID NOT!" She put her hands over her cheeks.

"YES YOU DID!" Natsu couldn't believe, out of all the dirty things she has thought about, that his own wife fantasized about him and her boss doing _naughty_ stuff with each other.

"Ok, I'll admit," her face was no longer red of embarrassment and her thoughts no longer dirty. "I did. Just a little bit, nothing but harmless… foreplay?"

"I can't… believe my own wife… just pictured me with… another person…" Natsu pouted, turning to his left side so she couldn't see his fake tears that came out of his eye sockets. "And specifically… her boss…"

"I SAID I WAS JUST A LITTLE BIT!" She exclaimed. "I'm sorry…"

"I-It's ok, I guess." Natsu turned back to face her, stopping the façade tears. He still felt overwhelmed a bit.

"Can we just go ahead and skip to another topic?" She requested of him, hoping to avoid any further questions about the earlier topic. "Please?"

"Hmm… OK. Just this once though." He gave her a free pass.

"Ok, thanks." She said. Without much, she started to pick up the fallen checker pieces and proceeded to do pick up the rest from the bed.

"You don't have to do that, I was gonna do that." He told her, stopping her from picking up the rest. He took the bag away from her and proceeded to do it. It was his mess.

"You don't have to, I could've done it." She said to him as she watched as he picked up the pieces from the bed.

"Ah, don't worry about it, I have a broken leg not a broken arm," he told her. "Besides this is my mess."

"I guess," she went to put her bag on one of the chairs. "Right. Macao's wife called just before I came here."

"And?" He put the last piece inside the bag.

"She wanted you to give a eulogy at Macao's funeral which is 2 days away from today." She said, taking out a pen and paper from her bag.

"A eulogy? Why didn't she ask Gildarts?" He was astonished at the news given to him. Like he had told the Dean of Medicine, he wasn't that close to Macao as Gildarts was.

"She tried calling him but…" Erza stopped mid-sentence.

"But what?" He asked, hoping to get more out of her.

"He didn't answer," she said, finishing her earlier sentence. "She called him about ten times before she gave up."

"Did she tried calling his daughter, Cana?" He asked her.

"She did," she took one of the chairs and placed it next to the bed. She sat on it, facing Natsu. "Cana told her that her father had gone to the Fire Station."

"Let me guess? She then called the fire station and I don't know, Elfman answered, telling her that the boss hasn't checked in yet?" Like a mind reader, Erza nodded, confirming the scenario he had just given her.

"I've also tried calling Elfman's sister, Lisanna." Erza told him.

"What for?" He asked her.

"To see if he wasn't at her bar," Erza further explained why she called Lisanna. "Usually, he would try to drown himself with a bunch of beer just to forget a day like yesterday."

"He probably is," Natsu started to mess with the bed's control, hoping for it to hunch it over. "But he probably went to an unfamiliar bar that we all don't know about- HELP ME WITH THIS THING!"

Erza from her sitting position, simply moved his hand away from the bed controls and did it, finally making the bed go into a nice position where Natsu didn't have to hunch his and straighten it out. "You're probably right about that." She said to him.

"Thank you," Natsu thanked her for the assistance. "I appreciate that you're here but, don't you have other patients to look at besides me?"

"Today is Thursday," she told him the date. "I don't work on Thursdays, remember? Or did the accident jumble your brain up a bit?"

"Oh ha-ha, very funny," he gave her a straight but annoying smirk with his arms across his chest. "I forgot today was Thursday."

"Mm hmm," although, she did feel a bit sly at first at his excuse, she accepted nonetheless. "Well, I'm going to the store that is a few blocks away from here, need anything?" She stood up from her chair.

"Is it that store that's next to the Mexican Restaurant?" He asked, hoping that's where she's headed to.

"You're craving a Torta aren't you?" She instantly guessed what he was appetizing. He simply nodded at her, confirming what he was craving. "Well, I guess I can go get you one." She grabbed her purse and carried it on her left shoulder as she usually did. "Might as well buy those beef tacos I like from there as well. What kind of Torta do you want, honey?"

"Milanese meat-filled torta, please." He requested of her.

"Ok, got it." She turned and started to walk out of his room.

"Wait," he called out to her, stopping her before she took anymore steps. "Can you turn on the TV? I want to see the morning news."

"Certainly." She said, grabbing the first chair she saw and placing it right under the TV. She climbed up the chair, stretched her arm out and pressed the first button to the left, turning the TV on.

Natsu heard a rather familiar theme song that annoyed him yesterday. "Oh for god sakes, change the channel please."

"Something the matter?" She turned her head, seeing her husband from the corner of her left eye.

"Yesterday, the damn nurse left with the remote control, leaving the TV with this channel yesterday on," Natsu had his hands cover his ears. He could still very much hear the theme song of the _X-Files_ and his wife, Erza. "A whole damn marathon of this damn show. I can't believe this program is still at it."

Erza moved to the next button on the TV, changing the channel to a news station. "There you go."

" _ **This is Mirajane Strauss, reporting live on Channel 14's Magnolia's News Station…**_ "

…

"Boss?" A grunt cop entered the Chief's office who seemed to be taking a nap on the mass amounts of paper on his desk.

"W-Who is there?" Laxus woke up, having one of the pieces of paper latch on to his cheek. He looked at his door and saw the police officer peeking his head into the small opening of the door. "What is it, corporal?"

"You might want to turn your TV on, boss." The corporal advised his boss to do so.

"Ugh," he rubbed his eyes before reaching for the remote control that was right in front of him on his desk. "This better be good."

He turned it on, playing Channel 14's morning news station. " _ **We have received some new information from an anonymous caller about the fire from yesterday,**_ " Laxus suddenly bursted out of his seat. " _ **If you all don't know, yesterday afternoon, an apartment complex in Lamia Avenue was set on fire, causing serious damage to its 3**_ _ **rd**_ _ **, 4**_ _ **th**_ _ **, 5**_ _ **th**_ _ **, 6**_ _ **th**_ _ **and 7**_ _ **th**_ _ **floors. What seemed like an accident was actually an intentional set fire by a mysterious arsonist who has also started fires stemming from almost 7 months ago. He uses a Molotov to set these blazes. His identity still hasn't been discovered yet by the authorities so keep your eyes on mysterious people…**_ "

"Is this shit playing on any other channels?" Laxus immediately turned off his TV.

"Yes sir, but only channel 14 was the only station that received the tip call." The corporal answered his boss.

"Well, the good news is, we now have a new piece of information, which is the tip call," Laxus fell to his chair, taking out a heavy sigh. "Bad news though, the media is going to tear us apart."

"I hear you sir," the corporal agreed with his news. "Do you want me to go to the station and get a copy of that anonymous call?"

"Yeah, take someone with you as well." He gave the cop the 'Go' button.

The corporal closed the door behind him, leaving Laxus to his thoughts in his office. "Dammit!" He slammed his fist on his desk. The gust from the hit managed to scatter his papers and blow them away from his desk. He looked at the knuckle part of his hand; it was a red shade type of color overlooking it.

" **RING!** " Suddenly, his office phone started to ring. It was on the right opposite side of his computer on his desk. He reached towards it and answered.

"Yeah?" He groaned as he answered.

"Boss?" A male officer answered the other line.

"This better be important, corporal." Laxus rubbed his hand over his face. Slightly agitated at the current situation.

"It is, the sketch artist compared the two sketches," he said over the phone. "You know from the burglary of the firefighter suit and the face your friend saw?"

His eyes glimmered with shock. "And? Did he get a hit in the database?"

"Are you mind reader? Cause he did." The grunt officer affirmed the assumption.

"That's fucking great," Laxus tone finally changed. "What's the bastard's information!?"

"His name is Ben Richards," the officer said. "When he was in prison, they called him _Zancrow_."

"Zancrow?" Laxus could've sworn he heard that name before. "Why does that name sound familiar?"

"He was that sorry kid that burned down his high school back in 2007," the officer clarified. "He got out almost a year ago."

"A year ago? The fires started a few months ago though." Laxus scratched his cheek.

"Maybe something happened between the span of when he was released to when the fires started?" The officer asked.

"I really don't care," Laxus disregarded the motives. "Doesn't change what he's done."

"What was that?" Laxus could hear that the officer was talking to a third party. "You found out who the burnt body was? Angelica Rue? Ok got it."

"Hey, what's happening corporal?" Laxus tried getting the officer's attention back to the phone.

"We just got confirmation on our burnt victim," the officer explained over the phone like he's doing. "Angelica Rue."

"Wait, wasn't it that one teenage girl who identified Zancrow as the school's arsonist?" Laxus eyebrows furrowed.

"Yeah," he said. "Guess we should've seen this coming."

"Do you know his whereabouts?" Laxus asked.

"Nope," the officer said. "Ever since his release, he's been under the radar."

"Well fuck…" His office phone had another caller waiting for him. "Does he have any relatives?"

"Nope," the officer said. "Mother died a few years ago and father has been locked up in a secure Asylum in Tenrou City."

"Huh," he sighed, dropping to his chair. "Could this day get any worse!?"

"Is that a rhetorical question sir?" The officer asked before answering.

"No it was not," he assured him. "Well does have a previous address before he went down the radar?"

"Are there any reasons to check why we should check previous address sir?" He questioned his boss's peculiar insight.

"Just do it, dammit!" He yelled through his phone.

"Ok, ok…" The officer quickly went back into his notes and skimmed right through them. "Oh! Right here in Magnolia City he used to have a previous address with his uncle from the mom's side of the family. It's 3481 W. Sun Avenue."

"Good work, maybe they might know where to find him." He said.

"You're going there now aren't you sir?" The officer said on the other side of the phone.

"Yeah, it's not that far from here," Laxus said. "Meet me outside will you?"

"You want me to go with you? As back up?" The officer said rather nervously. "I'm only a sketch artist…"

"Don't worry, I just need you there with your sketches of the arsonist," he said, assuring the officer. "Nothing much."

"THEN CAN'T I JUST LEAVE THE SKETCHES OF THE SERIAL ARSONIST ON YOUR CAR!?"

"No buts, let's go." He hanged up the phone. He got of his chair, got his badge off his desk, proceeded to his coat racket to get his brown jacket and got out of his office.

As he got out, he could see his fellow officers somewhat slack off. A few of them are bundled up, gossiping like teenage girls would during lunch break. Others are either hold up in their desk duties, talking on the phone or eating their lunches. Although it did somewhat bother him that his officers are slacking off, it also gave him a small smile on his face.

He passed through the desks and to the farthest corner was a staircase. He went down the flight of stairs. At the bottom of them were the MPD's front entrance. As he exited out the building, the familiar curly black haired sketch artist beat him to his own car who wore a similar outfit like his; a white buttoned up shirt, blue jeans, black Vans, and his badge as a necklace. "Officer Riley." He greeted as he approached his car.

"Huh," he sighed as his boss turned off the alarm and opened the doors to the car with his key remote. "I still don't know why I should've come…" He opened the door, taking up shotgun position in the car.

"I needed someone for backup," he said as he closed his door and put the key in the car. "It's a rough neighborhood over there."

"Is that why we're in your car and not in a standard cop car?" He asked.

Laxus turned his key and turned the car on. "Yep, if anyone asks who we are, just say we're house inspectors." He drove off into the parking space.

"Fine," he agreed with those terms. "Just for your information boss, I've always been behind the desk. Never actually shot a gun before 'til now."

Laxus turned right, exiting the parking lot and entering the streets of Magnolia. "You probably won't need your piece for this, I doubt we'll run into trouble."

"Maybe but Sun Avenue is still dangerous," Officer Riley had some doubt in his voice. "It's in gang territory and they do not take kindly to any cops."

He turned left. "Like I said, if the time comes which I doubt, we won't need our pieces." He stopped the car at a red light.

"I'm just saying, boss." Riley turned to look at his window. Not much to see besides an old run down building and a few merchant stores to both sides of the run down building.

"Yeah, yeah," the light turned green and Laxus, along with officer Riley, continued on to their destination. "Just keep your weapon in your leg holster, and put your badge in your pocket."

"Alright."

After driving for nearly half an hour, they made it to what seemed to be a gang torn up neighborhood. The majority of the Sun's houses had boarded up their windows, a few teens seemed to be taking their seats in most, if not all, front porch staircases. All they could do is just stare at the officer's which seemed to be the only expensive car in the whole block.

"Here it is," Laxus parked right in the empty slot of the house. "3481." He flipped the keyhole once more, turning it off. He turned to look at his 'partner' who had already taken of his seatbelt and quickly opening the door. He soon followed, getting out of the car and setting foot in the front lawn.

"Out of all the houses, this one is the only nice looking one." Riley commented on its appearance.

"Remember the plan, eh?" He looked at the officer as they walked towards the door.

"House inspectors, got it." Riley answered, stopping right in front of the door.

Laxus knocked on the mahogany wood door. For several seconds, he continued to knock until and elderly man opened the door. "Yes?" He said lowly but high enough to be audible.

"Mister Masterson?" Officer Riley asked to see if that was the man's identity.

"Yes?" He answered. "To whom am I speaking to?"

"I'm house inspector Laxus Dreyar and this is my associate, Daniel Riley," Laxus introduced himself and Riley as expected. "We're here about your nephew, Ben Richards. Is he here with you?"

"Oh is this about his apartment?" He asked, opening the door more and revealing more of his appearance. Slouched and in bed robes. "He said he wouldn't go back there unless someone stopped the leaking of the water that comes from the apartment above his."

"Yeah about that," Laxus scratched his head, improvising a lie. "You see in his form, he gave us a false address for no apparent reason. And we checked under his emergency phone number and saw your name. I was hoping you could give us his real address so we could talk to him face to face."

"Well because of the leak, he lives with me," the elderly man gave them his nephew's whereabouts, which was with him. "But I'll be happy to give his address so you can fix the leak at his apartment com-"

"WAIT HE'S HERE WITH YOU!?" Laxus yelled, puzzling the elder man.

"Y-yes," he said, backing up a bit slowly. "Would you like to talk to him? He's in the basement, doing his _inventions_."

" _Inventions_?" Both officers said at the same time. By their exchanging looks, they seemed slightly worried at what kind of inventions the boy was doing in the basement.

"Y-yes…" The elderly man seemed more and more confused at their exchanging looks.

Laxus took of his badge from his pocket, showing the elder in the most comprehensive but discrete way. "C-Cops?" The elderly man stared at the badge.

"Yeah," Riley responded, revealing their true status. "The thing is, cops aren't really loved around this area."

"Cause of the gangs right?" The elder man gazed back at them.

"Yeah," Laxus nodded at that. "Anyways, we believe your nephew is involved in a series of arson attacks and suspected murder."

"So you mean to tell me that he's the serial arsonist on the news?" The information didn't seem to surprise the elderly man.

"A suspect." Laxus loosened the label a bit.

"Should've seen this coming," the elder man sighed, moving his head upwards and massaging his neck with his right hand. "Ever since he got out of jail, he's been on edge."

"Sorry…" Riley apologized. He tried to show some sympathy toward the elderly man.

"Eh, I'll go get him for you." The elder man left the door open and started to walk back towards the end of the hall where stairs leading to the basement were located.

"Thank you." Laxus said as the elder stepped foot on the first stair.

"Didn't think we'd find him that easy…" Officer Riley whispered toward his boss.

"Yeah…" Although Laxus agreed with Riley, his gut instinct told him another story.

Suddenly, within the minute, a gunshot was heard from the basement. With quick reactions, Laxus and Riley equipped their guns to their hands and ran towards the staircase. "POLICE! PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!" Laxus said as he and Riley went down.

A gunshot was fired at one of the stairs, stopping both cops in their tracks. "DON'T MOVE! I-I GOT A HOSTAGE DOWN BERE!" He threatened them.

"Shit…" Riley cursed under his breath. "What are the chances that the old man is actually dead?"

"What are the chances if he's still alive?" Laxus spoke in the same lone tone as his fellow officer. "We're not going in there guns blazing! Besides…" He looked down at the stairs. "He has the best vantage point to kill us…"

"Nngh…" Riley grunted. Although he agreed to a certain point with his boss's reasoning, he still would like to charge in there.

"HEY BEN!" Laxus called out to the suspect. "IS YOUR UNCLE OK?!"

"Y-Yeah!" Ben answered, looking down on his uncle who was behind the couch bleeding out.

"THAT'S GOOD!" It seemed as though Laxus was negotiating, well tried. Suddenly, before Laxus could continue the conversation, both cops heard a window being smashed.

With that opening, they quickly went down the stairs. Laxus noticed that Ben had quickly escaped out the small window while Riley quickly tended to the elder man. "I'm going after him, stay here and call an ambulance!"

Before Riley could speak, Laxus had already dashed up the stairs. "H-He… has a… Molotov with him..." The elder man coughed up blood.

"A Molotov?" Riley looked at the elderly man. He continued to cough up blood. He quickly took out his cellphone and dialed the emergency number. "Yeah this is officer…"

It didn't take much for Laxus to catch up to Ben. "Ugh… Huff…" Both of them panted around the block. Several minutes have passed and neither are giving up from running, even while in their exhausted states.

Laxus then saw the young man enter an abandoned convenient store, about 4 stories high. He stopped and quickly reached in to his jacket's inside pocket. Empty. "Shit!" He cursed under his breath. "Left my fucking phone in the car…"

He looked back at the building. "Well, let's not keep this fucker waiting…"

He slowly walked into the building. The dust mostly covered everything from the flooring to the wall, to the furniture. "ACHOO!" He sneezed.

"Is the big 'ol cop allergic to the little dust?" Ben's baby-talk voice quickly alerted Laxus, raising his gun and waving it around to all directions, not missing his weak spots.

"Is the little 'ol arson afraid of a cop that he has to hide in the shadows?" He retorted back. He looked around and saw the stairs. He hurried his pace, placed his back on the wall and slowly went up the stairs.

"I'm surprised you found me that easy…" Ben laughed in the shadows.

Laxus quickly went from an open space dusted area to a crowded dusted place. He seemingly walked in between a path through the mess of garbage, meshed up chairs and desks and god knows what else. "To be honest with you," his gun was pointed forward but his eyes looked around his surroundings. "I didn't think we'd find you this easily. Lucky for us, you had to have a leaky roof above your apartment to have spent your time with your uncle."

"Unlucky mass of amount of certain events, my friend." He said.

"Last time I checked, we were never friends." Laxus found the stairwell to the third floor.

"Oh right, I killed your firefighter friend," Ben started to laugh under his breath. It then grows loudly. "MUAHAHAHA!"

"Tch, you fucking…" Laxus tried to control his temper. The third floor wasn't as bad as the second, but it was easier to walk around.

"Oh, did I struck a nerve there?" He continued to push Laxus' buttons. "Good, good."

"Yeah you did," Laxus saw the stairwell leading to the fourth floor. He did the same thing as he did as he went up the stairs. "If I didn't have any moral codes, you'd already have a bullet in between your eyes but your hiding in the shadows." He entered the fourth floor. "Coward."

"What the fuck did you just call me?!" Ben said out loudly.

"Oh, did I struck a nerve?" Laxus turned the tables around.

"Would a fucking coward burn his own school down!?" He yelled once more at the cop. The echoes in the building made it hard to pinpoint his location.

"Hmpht, yeah." Laxus simply answered.

"Grrrr!" Ben began to angrily grunt.

"I mean what? The kids over there pick on you? What did they call you?" Laxus neared the fifth floor's staircase. "The same thing in prison? Zancrow? Cause that's a pretty fucking pathetic excuse to burn down the school."

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" He continued to utter the same words.

"And what about that girl, eh? The one you killed back at the apartment building," he pressed on. "Did you kill her because she ratted you out? Or because she refused to suck that little dick of yours?"

"I SAID SHUT THE FUCK UP!" He yelled it once more.

"YOU'RE STILL A FUCKING COWARD, YOU KNOW THAT!?" Laxus reached the top.

Suddenly, Ben jumped from outta of nowhere. In the scuttle, he managed to knockout Laxus his gun, and continued to hit him in the face with his left gust while his right hand occupied an already lit Molotov. "FUCK YOU!"

Although Laxus was incline to hit him, he didn't want to risk the Molotov falling on either, so he continued to block his face with his arms. "Nngh…"

"What's the matter!?" Ben continued his barrage of hits. "Ran out of backlash!?"

"You were the first one!" He retorted back.

"GRR!" He grunted. Surprisingly, a small opening appeared and Laxus used the opportunity to quickly kick the back of Ben's head and pushed him off.

With now a bigger opportunity, he quickly crawled to his thrown weapon near the wall. He grabbed it, jumped at his back toward the floor and aimed his gun at Ben who was still trying to get up. "Hands in the air!"

"Try me bitch!" Ben stood up, holding the Molotov over his head.

Laxus could only point his gun at him and stare at awe. "Why you little…!"

"Hahaha, you can't do it can you?" His maniacal laugh sent goosebumps up Laxus back. "All that talk about putting a bullet in between my eyes was all shit, wasn't it!?"

"Tch." Laxus, still having his gun pointed at the boy, slowly got up from the floor.

"I could already hear the news line, _Chief Cop killed by Serial Arsonist_ ," he smirked. "Or would _Suspected Serial Arsonist killed by Chief Cop_ sound better?"

"I mean it! Drop the Molotov!" Laxus said once more.

"Hahahahaha! You know what I don't fucking care!" He waved around the Molotov, contemplating whether to kill the Blonde or kill himself.

"You know…" A familiar third party joined in. "None of those options sound good at all."

"What the-?" Ben turned around and saw the other cop that was at his uncle's house.

"Riley?" Laxus was surprised to see the sketch artist here. And at the right time.

"Drop your weapon you fiend." Riley ordered, pointing his gun at Ben.

"Tch." Ben was now surrounded from both his front and back, and his sides weren't much help considering they lead nowhere to but a wall.

"Are you gonna do it!?" Laxus asked once more.

Without hesitation, Ben turned around, quickly about to throw the Molotov in his hand.

**Shit!** Everything went from high paced to almost all of time going slow for Laxus. He didn't want to shoot the boy. But a shot was fired. Was it by his gun? No. No steam came out from his gun. The bullet entered Ben's right hand, going through it and shattering the bottle. The Molotov's liquor was set into flames, and all of it landed on Ben.

"AAAAAHHHHH!" A loud inaudible cry came out of Ben's mouth. His whole body underwent the flames in seconds.

Laxus perception was back to normal and he could hear the boys cries. "Chief!" Riley called out, snapping him back to reality.

Without hesitation, Laxus took his jacket and quickly used it to take off the flames. "You're not dying on my watch!" With the help of Riley, both cops succeeded in taking of the flames.

The fire did a huge amount of damage to the boy. His upper body all burnt and crisp and a rather unpleasant smell of cooked meat flew in the air. "We need to call an ambulance!" Riley said, turning to look at Laxus.

"I don't have my phone with me!" Laxus said.

Riley quickly pulled out his and called. "Hello!? We need an ambulance down at…"

…

" _ **We have breaking news here at Channel 14,**_ " the bar's TV was tuned up all the way. It grabbed the attention to all of the people in the bar, particularly a red head. " _ **This is Mirajane and we are live right here in front of this abandoned convenient store near Sun Avenue where a shooting between Chief Officer Laxus Dreyar, Sketch Artist Officer Daniel Riley and suspected Serial Arsonist & Murderer Ben Richards took place.**_" The camera turned to look at an ambulance which carried the arsonist in. " _ **As you can see here, Ben Richards is being taken to Magnolia's Hospital where he's going to get treatment for his badly burns…**_ "

Suddenly, the red headed make stopped pouring his drink into his mouth and placed it on the table. "Hey barkeep, call me a cab will you?"

"Certainly."

…

"AH AH AH!" The pinkette squirmed around his bed as his red headed wife adjusted his leg cast.

"If…you keep squirming like this…it's going to hurt much more…than the pain you're feeling right now!" She said, trying to hold down his leg cast.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" He apologized but his apologies didn't help much as he continued to squirm. "It really hurts!"

"Your recent X-rays showed that your tendon is out of place and it could easily be fixed if you let me put it in place!" She told him once more his leg's current condition. "So please, take a deep breath and let me do this."

"O-Ok, I'll do that. I trust you," he held his breath, stiffened his body and finally let his doctor-wife do her job. She slowly took of the cast, revealing his purple bruised skin with a few burn marks here and there around it. She wrapped her hands around the area of the bone and in a quick manner, twisted the bone back in place. "GIYAH!" Natsu yelled in pain.

"Don't worry," she grabbed some lotion and spread it around his leg before wrapping it in newly fresh bandages. "The pain will cease soon."

"Y-Yeah?" Natsu cringed his teeth, still feeling the pain.

"Yeah." Ezra happily responded.

"Sorry for making you work on your off day, Erz." He apologized once more just as he laid his back, back into his bed.

"It's alright," she accepted his apology, taking her seat back near his bed. "At least it was with you that I worked on." She tried to see the bright side of this.

"Yeah well that's true." Natsu scratched his head.

Suddenly a third party voice from behind the door in his room called out. "Dr. Scarlet, you still there?" A man's voice was heard.

"You can come in." Both Natsu and Erza said in unity.

The mysterious man opened the half way, revealing himself to be the Dean of Medicine, Dr. Jellal Fernandez. "Hello, excuse Mr. Dragnet but I'm going to have to borrow your wife for this."

"On her off day?" Natsu raised his eyebrow.

"It's okay Natsu," Erza got herself up from her seated position and proceeded out the door. She turned to look at him before leaving. "It's probably not that important."

"Define important," Jellal rhetorically asked. "See you Mr. Dragneel."

"See you," He waved goodbye, seeing them go out the door. "Maybe I should take a nap…" His eyes were watery once he yawned.

Out the door, Jellal and Erza walked far enough from the room and into a solitary lounge in the hospital. "So what's so important?" She broke the silence.

"Have you seen the current news?" Jellal went to the coffee maker.

"Not really, I've been here all day with my husband, we ate lunch and watched normal TV together," she told him. He then turned to look at her as he drank his dark coffee from his maroon colored plastic cup. "You seem off edge. Is something the matter?"

"Well I was taking a nap before I received a call from the police, so yes I am a bit _edgy_." He put his cup of coffee on the coffee maker's desk.

"The police?" The sound of shock escaped Erza's mouth. "Why did they call you?"

"They found him already." He said, wiping the crust of his eyes.

"The arsonist!?" Her voice grew a bit.

"Yeah, but he's pretty burnt up," he laughed at his own comment. "Ironic."

"What does this have to do with me?" She asked him, hoping she can cut to the chase.

"They asked for the best doctor in this hospital." He said, grabbing his cup of joe once more.

"They're bringing him here?" She continued on with her questions. "And I'm flattered that you consider the best doctor here."

"Correction, they are here," he sipped his coffee. "And yes, you are my best doctor but are you up for the responsibility of being his doctor?"

"Is my integrity being questioned here?" She asked, this time crossing her arms across his chest.

"No, I'm asking because this is the same arsonist that put your husband in this hospital," he told her. "So I'm asking you one last time, are you up for the responsibility, yes or no?"

She no longer had her arms crossed. From what he could see, she turned her hand into a fist, exhibiting anger. "As a doctor, I am sworn to do my job and save my patients… but…" She looked down, thinking her words. "Nothing would make me happier than choking the life out of that bastard, so no. Get the second best doctor here, ok?" She turned around and started to walk away.

"Hmm, ok," He said, accepting her answer and finishing his coffee. "Oh, one more thing."

She stopped before opening the door to get out of the lounge. "And what's that?" She said without turning.

"Don't mention this to your husband." He said, throwing his cup into the trash bin near the hospital couch.

"I won't." She continued her walk.

It was a short walk but it seemed long to her. Her surroundings, the people around her, everything seemed to have slowed down. Her thoughts wondered about, contemplating what had just happened. Coming back to her senses, she realized she stopped right in front her husband's room.

She walked in and saw Natsu turned his back away from the door. "Natsu? Are you sleeping?"

He raised his hand, showing that he was still alert of his surroundings. "Yeah, I was thinking of taking a nap but…"

"But what?" She asked, closing the door behind her.

"I'm starving…" She could hear his loud stomachaches from where she stood.

"Heh," she chuckled. Her stomach started to growl as well, synchronizing with his. "Guess we're both hungry."

"Hey, what time is it?" He turned back to look at the door.

"Hmm," she brought her hand to her face and stared at her wristwatch. "It's about to be 6."

"Thanks." He said.

"Well I guess I can go get something to eat," she grabbed her jacket and purse from one of the empty chairs she had left them on. "Something from lunch room or…?"

"Surprise me." He didn't really care at this point like he did in the morning and afternoon.

"I was thinking Thai food." She said, pressing her index finger on her bottom lip.

"Good enough for me." He said, stretching his arms above his head.

"Alright, I'll be right back then." She put her purse or rather shoulder bag in place and left out the door.

She took several turns before facing an elevator. And right at the exact time it came up to her floor. She saw a few people come out, leaving the elevator to herself. She pressed the bottom left button and continued on her way.

No more than a few seconds, and she came to her designated floor: The Parking Lot. Just as she reached her car, her _Spider-Sense_ tingled. "What the…" She turned to look back at the hospital's elevator. She stared at it, not noticing a few sweats drops coming down from her forehead to her cheek. "M-Must've been nothing." She shook it off and took out her keys.

Back inside the Hospital, primarily the main entrance. The familiar buff red headed sort of drunk man came in, wearing shades and a baseball cap to obscure his identity. He came up to the main desk. "Can I help you?" The desk manager asked.

"Yeah, I'm looking for someone." He said, leaning forward on the desk.

"Sir," her nostrils seemed to have picked up his alcohol smell. "Have you been drinking?"

"I may have had a small shot or two," he lied. "But no, I'm not drunk if that's you're intended question."

"Doesn't matter," she waved her hand in front her face, obscuring the smell away from her. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

He then showed her his firefighter emblem badge. "Does this convince you otherwise?"

"Firefighter?" She stared at the golden badge.

"Now, can you take me to the arsonist?" He asked once more.

"I'm not sure if you shou-"

"Please?" He interrupted her, almost begging her to take him there.

Even with all that alcohol in the air, she could through the man. "… Ok, follow me this way."

"Thank you."

She called somebody beforehand to take over the main desk. Within the minute, she got off her chair and proceeded to show the shady firefighter to the arsonist's room.

First, they took the elevator, pressing the number 5 on the button. The same floor where Natsu's room occupied. It wasn't long for the elevator to reach the floor level. They continued their walk, taking turns from right to left. Finally, the disguised firefighter saw the room, which was obvious considering 2 cops guarded the room. "I'll take it from here miss." He told her.

"Excuse me?" She stopped walking.

"Where the cops are, that's where the arsonist is right?" He stood in front of her, talking lowly enough for her to listen to him.

"Y-Yeah." She confirmed.

"Ok, then take my advice. You don't want to be here." He continued to walk, leaving the desk manager where she stood.

He took off his cap and shades. "Hey there Chief Gildarts." One of the cop guards greeted him.

"Where's Laxus?" He asked for his cop friend's whereabouts.

"He's probably down at the Hospital's lunchroom." One of the guards said, looking up and scratching his chin.

"Yeah he and Officer Riley did look pretty beat up from trying to catch this bastard." The other guard clarified.

"That's good." Gildarts said lowly.

"What was that?" The guard asked. Before they knew it, Gildarts dashed into the arsonist's room.

"What the-!?" One of them said.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" Gildarts took out what seemed to be a 9mm handgun, pointing it at arsonist.

"What are you doing!?" They quickly reacted with them taking out their guns.

Their actions suddenly caused a sudden uproar of people. "Oh my god!" One of the nurses screamed at the situation. The doctors and patients that were walking around are now either hiding behind the nurse's station or inside other patients room.

"Chief, I don't like where this is going…" The guard said, aiming his gun at the veteran Firefighter.

"THIS BASTARD DOESN'T DESERVE TO LIVE!" He said, keeping his aim at the arsonist.

"Boss, are you there?" The other guard tried to communicate through chest walkie-talkie.

"Hmm, what's up?" Officer Laxus responded to the guard.

"Chief Gildarts is here," the guard poked his head into the room, watching the firefighter's actions along with his partner. "And he's taken the Arsonist as a hostage..."

"PFFT! WHAT!?" He spits his food out of his mouth.

"What's wrong boss?" Riley asked as he chewed and enjoyed his lunch food.

"Gildarts is here," he responded to Riley. He got his napkin and wiped the pieces of food in his chin and lips. "We'll be right down there!" He hanged up. "Let's go!"

"What's the hurry?" Riley asked, dropping his fork onto his plate.

"Gildarts has taken Ben hostage." He told him.

"Oh shit." He and Laxus quickly got up from there table and headed on up there.

So they could get there faster, they took the emergency stairs located near the lunchroom. It didn't take long for them to get to the fifth floor. They hurried their pace than before considering the floor's halls were sort of clear.

They made it to the room, where the men took cover near a cart. "What's the current situation?" Laxus asked the guards, as he and Riley took cover in the same spot.

"Not good, he's in there waving his gun at the maniac!" The guard said.

"He has a fucking gun!?" Laxus and Riley said at the exact same time.

"Did I not mention that?" The guard tried to recall his exact words.

"You didn't mention anything about a goddamn gun!" Laxus yelled at the guard.

"S-Sorry sir!" He apologized for the lack of information.

Laxus turned his attention to his distressed friend inside the room. "…"

"You going in there or what?" Riley asked.

"You know? For a sketch artist, you're really attentive at these things." He said.

"I'm usually behind a desk or a sketch pad," Riley replied. "I'm usually able to see through people and some of their bullshit."

"Ah." Both men including the guards looked through the door.

"He needs a friend in there, so go. I got your back from here," Riley saw that his boss holstered his gun away. "What are you doing!?"

"I'm doing it my way!" Laxus got himself up from his crouched position and proceeded to walk in the room, unarmed.

"DO YOU NOT FEEL ANY REMORSE FOR WHAT YOU DID YOU SHIT!?" Gildarts said, not leaving his aim of off the arsonist. He then heard footsteps come inside the room. He turned and saw his blonde friend, with his armed race.

"Gildarts, what are you doing?" He continued to put his arms and hands above his head.

"WHAT THE FUCK THIS IS LOOK LIKE I'M DOING!?" He retorted back. He kept walking forward and backward around the end of the arsonist's bed.

"Gildarts, man, you like shit!" Laxus saw his appearance. His hair was sort of messed up and a rather unpleasant scent of booze reeked into his nose. "And what's that smell? Ar-Are you fucking drunk!?"

"I… I may have had a few too many before I came here to confront this bastard…" His toned lowered. With his other hand, he wiped away a few small drops of sweat that had come down from his cheek.

"Oh my fucking God…" Laxus was now rather nervous at this point as his blank face showed. He's never dealt with calming down a drunk person, let alone a drunk friend. "Are you insane!?"

"At this point," his red eyes haven't locked off of Ben. "I DON'T FUCKING CARE!"

Back outside the room, the guards and Riley could hear the conversation between the two from where they were. "Alright guys, I'm going to need one of you to put the rest of the people from this floor in rooms, while the other goes back to the main floor and use the hospital's loudspeakers to inform the rest of the civilians to go into rooms and lock their doors."

"Y-Yes sir!" Both men got up from their crouched positions and walked out in different positions.

Riley looked back at the room, staring intently and continued to listen on the conversation.

"Gildarts, you know exactly what you're doing is wrong!" Laxus continued to calm him down. "You know that!"

"I-I know, but this fucker took away my best friend!" Gildarts continued to hesitate as he aimed at the man.

"I'm your friend too!"

In the main floor of the hospital, everything and everyone were calm, almost as if they knew nothing of what was happening. The guard stumbled onto the main desk. "Excuse me, can I borrow your microphone." He asked the new lady that is currently replacing the one that escorted Gildarts.

"Hmm? What for?" She asked as she continued to type into her computer.

"Do you not know what is going on at the moment?" He asked her.

"Am I supposed to know?" She looked away from her computer one bit to look at the guard. She could see his sweat drip from his forehead, like he was running a marathon beforehand. "I-Is something the matter?"

"There is a very drunk firefighter with a gun taking the serial arsonist as hostage," he told her in the best manner he could. "Now, give me the microphone, please."

Without question, she turned her chair and grabbed the microphone which was linked to all the loudspeakers in the hospital and handed it over to the guard.

"ATTENTION MAGNOLIA HOSPITAL RESIDENTS!" The speakers all sounded from all across the hospital.

The loud noise also managed to wake up the pinkette from his sleep. "…mmm… What the…" Natsu yawned, stretching his arms above his head. He then noticed 2 nurses were in his room, looking at the loudspeaker in his room.

"THERE IS A DRUNK FIREFIGHTER WIELDING A GUN AND TAKING THE SERIAL ARSONIST AS A HOSTAGE!" The guard continued on with his announcement. "DO NOT BE ALARMED! THERE IS ALREADY A FEW COPS TAKING CARE OF THIS SITUATION! IF YOU'RE OUT IN THE HALL'S OF THE HOSPITAL, PLEASE GO TO THE NEAREST ROOM AND LOCK YOURSELF AND OTHERS UP! WE WILL ALERT YOU WHEN THE THREAT IS NEUTRALIZED! THANK YOU AND HAVE A NICE DAY!" He gave the microphone back to the desk clerk.

"Did you really have to add the last part?" She asked grabbing and putting the microphone back where it was on the table.

"Yeah."

Within minutes, the so calm main floor had its doctors and patients run around. From pushing to hitting, many tried to get out of the hall in hopes of avoiding the situation at hand.

At the same time that happened, word got out and one of Magnolia's Police car was stationed outside, quickly sorting out the mess of people coming in and out. Another was stationed near the parking lot's entrance doing the same thing as the first patrol car.

"What the hell?" Erza said as she drove by the entrance of the hospital. Just as she neared the Parking lot entrance, she was stopped by one of the cops.

"Ma'am, going to need you to come back until this whole thing is sorted out." He told her as she rolled down her window.

"What's happening?" She asked him.

"There's a firefighter in the serial arsonist's room, taking him hostage," he told her the current situation. "The boss is trying to calm him down."

"A firefighter!?" She instantly thought of her husband. **Did he find out the arsonist was here already?**

"Ma'am, you ok there?" He saw her brows furrowed, indicating some hint of nervousness.

"I need to get in there!" She told him.

"No one comes in or out at the moment." He told her.

"You don't understand, I'm a doctor." She showed him her credentials.

"Sorry, not even doctors are coming in or out." He told her once more.

"My husband is in there!" She tried convincing him once more.

"My brother is in there too but I'm not worried." He told her once more.

"He's a firefighter, it could be him!" She said, hoping that could convince him otherwise.

He stood there trying to process the new given information. "This is Officer Scott; do you have any confirmation on the identity of the mysterious firefighter?" He spoke to his walkie-talkie.

"The identity of the drunken firefighter is Magnolia's Fire Department, Chief Gildarts, confirmed by Officer Riley," one of the first responders by the front entrance clarified. "Over."

"Roger." He said.

"Chief Gildarts? Oh thank god." She sighed in relief that it wasn't Natsu with the arsonist.

Back at the arsonist's room, Girdarts continued his repetitive walk at the end of the bed. "There's nothing you can say that'll change my mind right now, Laxus!"

"Don't do this!" Laxus repeatedly told him once more. "What would Macao think of this?"

Gildarts stopped walking and turned to look at the blonde cop. "…what did you say?"

"What would Macao think of this!?" He uttered the words once more towards Gildarts.

"DON'T. YOU. DARE. GO. THERE!" He now pointed his gun at Laxus.

"Nngh," Laxus was surprised at this situation. His friend held him at gunpoint now. Laxus was rethinking of equipping his gun now, but continued on with his pieces of words. "But I am!" He told him. "You're being a damn hypocrite! You're using his death to justify this! THIS ISN'T WHAT HE WANTED YOU DAMN BRUTE!"

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" He held both of his hands up by his head, almost like he was covering his ears to stop listening to Laxus.

In his disarray state of mind, Gildarts waved around his gun. From pointing at Laxus to pointing his gun back at the arson, who is now awake and aware in his oxygen incubator. Laxus was now fully aware that he might not be able to talk him down. "You fucking idiot, stop pointing around that gun like that!" Laxus unholstered and drew his gun at the man. He saw he that he quickly recovered from his sudden migraine and his movements began again, this time however, in the most impatient way he's ever been. "This isn't you!"

"I'm sorry Laxus, but I can't do that!" The red haired man pointed the gun again the badly burnt and bandaged man. "Not after all the pain this bastard has brought to many people…"

"I swear to God, Gildarts!" Laxus put his gun near his right eye, aiming at him. "If you pull up that gun one more time, I would not hesitate to shoot you!"

"Go ahead." He drew it up once more, provoking his friend to fire his gun. A small tear seeped out of his left and down it strolled his cheek it went.

No use, he couldn't bear the thought of shooting his friend. "Fucking bastard, stop it!"

"I'm sorry Laxus." Gildarts placed his finger on the trigger.

Like back in the building, Laxus' perception slowed down. He turned his head slowly to the left, only to see a crutch at the side at him thrown, passing right beside him. Gildarts, in the same manner, turned to look at Laxus only to find out that the wooden crutch had reached and hit his hand, knocking off his weapon. With the impact, the gun flew from his hand, slinging into the window and meeting its end.

"What the hell!?" Both of them said, turning their attention toward the assailant.

"You dumb bastard!" A certain loudmouthed pinkette said coming in slowly with the other crutch still underneath his right armpit. "The hell are you doing here waving around a gun like that!?" He blatantly asked Gildarts. "And you! Why didn't you stop this big dumbass!?" He turned his attention at Laxus now.

"Eh what?" Seeing as Gildarts was disarmed, Laxus holstered his gun, although he was still surprised to see Natsu. "H-How did you even get past the security guards and Officer Riley!?"

"I knocked them out with one of my crutches," he started to walk towards Gildarts. "Like this."

"Wai-" Without much, Natsu raised his right crutch, hitting Gildarts in the head, knocking the drunken behemoth out for the count.

"Damn idiot," he sighed as he put his crutch back into place. "This the arsonist punk?" He turned to look at the burnt arsonist.

"Nngh… what are you going to do?" Laxus sweat dropped as both men gazed into each other's eyes.

The arsonist's red eyes, from his sclera to his pupil and iris, grew wider, remembering Natsu from his encounter at the burning building complex where he murdered the girl Angelica. "Y-You're… still… alive!?" Because of his extensive burns, he had trouble trying to speak

"Hmm…" Natsu turned away, not responding to the man in anyway and simply started to walk back toward his room. He stopped right next to Laxus just before leaving the room. "Macao's funeral is tomorrow, just for the heads up."

"Yeah, his wife had called me in the morning." He answered.

And just like that, Natsu left the room, leaving the regretful friend, the serial arsonist and the drunk firefighter in there. Just as he left, Laxus went up to the knocked out Gildarts, putting the cuffs on him and carrying him out of the room.

As he came out, Riley, who was on the floor, seems to be coming back from his sudden _slumber_. "Ugh… did Natsu really just hit me? And with his crutch? On the head!?" He said rubbing his face with his hand.

"Call it in." Laxus sighed back, taking a seat next to where he placed the knocked out drunk.

"10-15." He radioed on the walkie-talkie.

"10-4," the police stationed near the hospital's main entrance affirmed. "Alright guys, threat is in custody. We could let these guys back in."

_**Several hours later…** _

In a holding cell back at the main Police Station, Gildarts laid down on one of the holding cell's benches. His forehead and his eyelids started to wince up and downward, his breathing became hoarser than before. "Ouch…" He weakly said, placing one of his hands over his forehead, trying to stop some sort of head pain.

"You awake?" Laxus stood waiting near the wall behind the bars, holding a cup holder tray with two coffees in it.

"Give me a minute…" Gildarts insisted.

"Understood," Laxus continued to wait. He then nodded at the guard, getting the keys and opened the holding cell for Laxus. He came in, closing and locking the cell's door behind him once more, taking a seat next to his friend. "How you feeling?"

"Like a fucking train hit me really hard…" He continued to groan. With his right middle finger and thumb, he massaged his forehead. "Tell me…"

"Hmm…" Laxus looked at Gildarts, waiting for his question.

"I… didn't kill him… right?" He asked him.

"No." Laxus answered.

"Thank god…" He placed both his hands on his face, taking a deep breath. "My memory seems… to be very… vague at the moment."

"But you know what you did kill?" Laxus asked him.

"What?" He asked, still trying to remember what he did in his drunken rampage.

"Your brain cells." He chuckled.

"Huh… fucking smartass." Gildarts chuckled with him. With his eyes finally opened, he took a seat where he laid.

"Here," Laxus handed him one of the cup of coffees. "Figured you might have needed one of these once you've woken up."

"Thanks." He grabbed it, sipping the dark coffee from the cup.

"Also, I pulled some strings, used some of my favors…" Laxus straightened out his back, looking up at the ceiling.

"And?" Gildarts asked, hoping to get the rest out of him.

"And you're getting released tomorrow," Laxus got his coffee, drinking some before finishing his sentence. "Wouldn't want you to miss Macao's funeral."

"…" Gildarts looked down at his coffee. "T-Thanks."

"Don't thank me," Laxus got up from his seat. "Here, Macao's wife also wanted you to write an eulogy." He handed him a notepad and a pencil before walking back towards the cell's door. "One more thing."

"And what's that?" He asked, putting the notepad and pencil on the bench as well as the guard opened the cell's door.

"You're going to have to retire earlier than what you were intending to." He said looking back at Gildarts.

Without much thinking, Gildarts brought a rather small but gleeful smile on his face. "I've been at this game for a long while now, haven't I?"

"Yeah."

…

Back at the hospital, everything seemed to be back to normal. The halls were back to being filled with patients, doctors and nurses alike, the sounds of nurses typing and gossiping all around along with phones that keep on ringing.

"Oh," Erza gasped, looking at the time at her wristwatch. "Going to have to leave in a bit."

"Already?" Natsu already misses her with the frown he gave her.

"Don't worry, I'll be back tomorrow to pick you up before the funeral." She got up from her chair, placing it back with the rest of the others.

"I guess," he pouted, slouching right back into his pillow. "Hey Erza."

"Yeah?" She asked, getting her things ready before she left.

"You think… you think I'll go in a rampage like Gildarts if something ever happened to you?" He asked her, looking down and rubbing his neck.

"I don't know," she said placing her bag on her right side. "The human mind works in very different ways but…"

"But what?" He could hear the rather hesitant tone in her voice.

"But, I don't think so," she said, walking towards the bed and taking a seat next to him. With her both of her hands, she held his. "I've known you almost all my life Natsu, and if there's one thing I know, is that your love for me is greater than your rage instincts." She placed her hand on his cheek, soothingly petting him.

"I guess that works for me." He chuckled.

"Ok now, I have to go, the nurses over here start tripping about visiting hours and what not,' she got off of the bed and walked over to the door. "Goodnight now, see you tomorrow.

He nodded. "Love you." He told her.

"Love you too."


	3. Bonus Chapter 1: Eulogy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: The Bonus Chapters are just chapters about details that I'm leaving out in the main story of this.
> 
> Just think of them like, fillers but these are somewhat necessary to the story in their own way.
> 
> Also note that the Bonus Chapters would be relatively smaller than the other chapters and show the inbetweens in the time lapses.
> 
> Some may also have bloopers I guess and would have significant spoilers or hints to the next big chapter.
> 
> Hope this goes well. Now I'll be shutting up…

Like every fallen hero, Macao's funeral was celebrated as one.

From family to friends to even some people that Macao and a few of his firefighter friends have saved from fires, all the rows were filled, and as usual in a funeral, all of them were black colored clothing.

The skies were cloudy and a few people sitting in the rows had brought their own umbrellas in case a small pouring of rain fell.

It was finally time. Gildarts, the man that was to say the Eulogy stood up from his chair, next to him was his daughter Cana.

He walked up to the stand, where a picture of his beloved best friend was. He stood in front of the whole audience.

He saw all his firefighter brethren and a few familiar cop faces. He coughed, clearing away his nerves and finally speaking into the microphone.

"Hello, my name is Gildarts Clive and today we're here to honor a man I worked with in the line of duty, and a man I considered to be like a brother to me. And that man is Macao Conbolt."

He cleared his throat once more. He didn't feel like his voice was cut out for a speech like this, but now was not time for those kind of complaints to himself.

"This man, Macao, he was a great man. Respected by both young and veteran firefighters alike.

"Like I said earlier, he was like a brother to me. We joked, we laughed, we drank, hell, we watched each others back. He was there for me and my daughter, Cana, when my wife died and I'll stand right by his wife and child, the same way he did to me.

"I've made terrible choices, but the one choice I'll never regret is befriending this man, who later became my brother."

He held back his tears. A few people in the in rows have already started to cry before him. He took out a big breathe and continued on with the eulogy.

"When he was taken from us, I was angry… I was scared… Most of all, I was sad… Sad that I would never ever see my best friend ever again… Sad that the sorry bastard who did this to him never had it coming…

"While it's true that in a drunken state, I went to go confront his attacker, I realized by him and another friend that this wasn't what he wanted, and that was tainting his name in vein…

"I learned that my friend would never condone that, and would've never wanted me to do that… To destroy myself like that and to taint the Fire Department's name."

He stopped once more. He was almost done with his speech. He took out one last heavy breath and looked back out at the crowd.

"The best way to keep him alive in our hearts and in memory, is to keep doing what we're doing and move forward!

"He would've wanted us to continue to do what we do and what we love, not to continue to grieve over his death. That my friends and family is how we would honor this man!"

He finally finished. A round of applause from the audience thanked him for his appealing speech.

Time passed, and it was now time for the burial. Everyone was finally done saying their last words to him.

As his body was being buried, everyone knew one thing, and that was the man being buried was once a friend, a lover, a partner and a Hero. That his name will never be used to justify anything for anyone or anything. That this was the beginning of something new…

 


	4. Something Unexpected

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Why shouldn't I shoot, doctor?" The crimson haired fellow now pointed his gun towards the doctor who was supposed to help him, whether she complied or he forced her. "Even after you almost stabbed me, give me a good reason why I shouldn't blow your damn brains, guts or limbs off!?"
> 
> "..." Erza held her breath, thinking of what to say to the man.
> 
> "Tell me!" He yelled at her once more, this time holding the gun near her face.
> 
> She could no longer hold her tears and a stream of them rolled down both cheeks. "I-" She sobbed, rubbing away the tears that signified her fear. "I… I'm pregnant!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail nor it's character's. This is purely fan-made and it's not, in any way, associated with the canon stuff and what not.
> 
> Author's Note: I'm so sorry that I updated this story sooo late. Most of this story will have long chapters (besides it's bonus chapters), so the process of making these are somewhat long. That and top that off with few bits and pieces of writer's block here and there.
> 
> If you noticed, I've also added the Bonus Chapter which includes both the Eulogy and Funeral for the character I killed off.
> 
> At the end of this chapter, I'm hoping you, the reader, can answer a question that has been lingering inside my head.
> 
> Anyways, I will now shut up and let you all read now, so story time…

_**Six Months Later After the Funeral…** _

It had been half a year since their dear friend, Macao, died in the line of duty. The same explosion that killed Macao, had rendered Natsu into Physical Therapy. Even through the harshness of losing a loved one, it didn't stop Natsu from continuing to push himself back into physical shape.

"He's doing pretty well so far, Ms. Scarlet," a short bluenette female doctor sat across from Erza as both women enjoyed their evening eating lunch. "Or would you like me to call you, Mrs. Dragneel?"

"Enough of the formalities, Levy, just call me Erza." Erza lightly chuckled as her fellow colleague kept referring to her by surname.

"I'm sorry, Erza," she quickly apologized for ascertaining with either or. "It's just I never had a patient, or client as you will, that is married to a doctor as well."

"Just treat me and Natsu as friends," her friendship with the Physician took them back into High-school Years. Levy was the typical bookworm. As shy as she may look, the bluenette was rather straightforward whenever it came down to whatever she sets her eyesight to. "Besides, whatever you're making Natsu do, it's working very well."

"Well, I wouldn't be a physician if it didn't," she chuckled at her remark, continuing to munch on her sandwich she had made and brought to lunch. "And how do you know that the training has been working well?"

"Oh, I just know," Erza hid her small smile. "He's been quite energetic in the-"

"Bed department?" Levy finished her sentence. Erza's cheeks were as pink as ever, but deflected with her continuous laughter. Both women continued to lightly chuckle throughout their conversation.

"So, how are things with your boyfriend?" Erza now reversed their roles of their relationships.

"It's pretty serious at the moment." Levy jugged down the last remaining of water in her bottle.

"Who would've thought that you and the biker boy would've made it this far," Erza did the same action as Levy, although not finishing her drink in one gulp. "Ah- What was his name again? Ca-hoot?"

"His name is Gajeel," Levy corrected. She was right however, her relationship with the biker was as long as Erza's and Natsu's, since High-School as well. "And just because he's a biker and I'm a bookworm, doesn't mean it wasn't going that far." She quipped back.

"True," Erza took back her remark. "I'm surprised that finger still doesn't have an engagement ring." She glanced right over to Levy's left hand, on her fourth finger.

"Not every couple needs to wear a ring to be eternally happy," Levy put her left hand in front of her face. She let out a faint sigh, contradicting her earlier statement. "But an engagement ring would be rather nice."

"Don't worry, I'm sure Gajeel would eventually come around to it," Erza gave her colleague a reassuring smile. "I am very sure of it."

"Thanks Erza," Levy returned the smile. Suddenly, Erza's face turned green and quickly grabbed the nearest bag she found. "Erza, are you okay?" Levy's immediate reaction was to be at her friends side, luckily she was only a few feet away from her.

"Yeah I'm ok-HURGH!" Erza continued to gargle up her lunch onto the brown bag.

"That doesn't sound okay to me." Levy held Erza's hair up, helping her vomit the bits and pieces of her lunch.

"Okay..." Erza, exhausted at her constant vomiting, said as she threw the bag containing her half processed food into a trash bin close to their table. "I think... I think I'm good."

"Are you sure?" Levy asked her.

"Yeah," Erza wiped away some dirty saliva off her bottom lip with a napkin. She could still taste the awful food refuge from her mouth, so in an effort to take the stench off, she poured down the remaining water she had. "This has been happening for the past week already."

"The past week?!" A certain level of concern was hinted in Levy's tone.

"Yeah," Erza said once more. "I'm just sick, that's all."

"Erza, do you honestly believe that?" Levy crossed her arms around her chest. As a doctor, she would've thought her friend was more aware of her symptoms than most.

Erza didn't answer. She was now in her thoughts, carefully realising what her symptoms were telling her. From having nauseating mornings to having random epidemics of mood swings and through many hours of having her breasts tender, her eyes widened. "But that's impossible..." She said lowly to herself.

"What's impossible?" As much as Levy wanted to read her brain, she was stuck reading her expressions.

"I can't be pregnant," Erza started to heavily breath, touching the specific spot where most babies would be located. "Me and Natsu have been super careful!"

"Are you sure?" Levy raised an eyebrow, wondering what her definition of super careful meant to her.

"He wears a condom, and I am on the pill!" Erza explained. "How much more careful can we be!?"

"I take it that's a rhetorical question," Levy didn't bother to answer, except give her philosophy to her scarlet haired friend. "Maybe it was-"

"I swear to God, Levy, if you tell me that 'It was destiny,' mumbo jumbo, I would tear that head of yours and shove it up your ass!" Erza cut her sentence.

As capable as Erza can be, Levy didn't read to much into her sudden threat. "Either that's one of your sudden mood swings or you slept on the wrong side of the bed." Levy said.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that..." And there it was once again, another quick change in her emotions.

"It's alright." Levy didn't hold it against her friend.

"I need to do a pregnancy test, just to be sure." Erza quickly got up from her chair and got her purse.

"I have a few in my office, I could go right now and get them for you, if you like." Levy informed her.

Considering Levy was a physician and all, Erza didn't seem to question why she would have any. She simply nodded up and down, accepting the generous offer her friend gave her.

"All right, I'll be right back." Levy then soon rushed back into the building, leaving Erza by herself at their table.

Several minutes passed and Levy finally returned with a small bag. "How many did you bring?" Erza questioned as she came closer.

"About 5," Levy weakly smiled. "Just to be sure about it."

"Levy, you are a life saver!" Erza instantly hugged Levy and gave her a small friendly peck on the cheek. She then took the bag of the bluenette's hands and soon walked away, going back home.

"You're welcome." Levy waved a goodbye to her colleague.

**...**

After driving around the city in her car, she finally made it back home to her apartment.

She parked her car in the same place, which was a few buildings over to the nearest parking lot. She soon walked the rest, making her way to the apartment complex main door.

It had been almost 2 months since the main building's lobby room was redecorated and refurnished. It was the same gray colored wall except it's style was now that of small rectangular textiles. She made her way to the elevator, waiting for it to come down to the main floor.

"Hello there, Mrs. Dragneel," Rufus, the newest Security Guard that roamed the building, greeted Erza as she waited for the elevator. "How was your morning?"

"It has been rather interesting, so far." As much as she wanted to spew the news of her being pregnant, she first still had to confirm whether she was or not.

"How interesting, ma'am?" He wanted her to specify a bit more.

"It's a bit personal." She said. She looked at the numbers above the elevator's door; more than halfway down already.

"Ah, okay, I won't push you for more then, ma'am." He didn't pressure her anymore with the questions.

She waited several more seconds until finally the doors opened, signifying it's arrival. "Nice chatting with you, Rufus." She gave him a faint smile just as she entered the elevator.

"Oh, Mr. Dragneel is already here, just for the heads up." He told her.

She then put herself in between the elevator doors. "What?" She was hoping she misheard what the guard told her.

"I said, Mr. Dragneel is already here," he could see her expression turn rather south as he repeated his information. "Is there a problem ma'am?"

"Ugh, no, no problem at all Rufus." She entered the elevator, now disconnecting their conversation.

As the elevator went up to her apartment floor, she couldn't help but go back into her deep thoughts. **Crap, he's supposed to be back at his job today,** her plans of checking whether she was pregnant while being discreet were now being halted by her husband's presence. **Why is he home so early?**

Her curiosity of being pregnant however, won over her curiosity of Natsu's current presence in the apartment.

The elevator finally made it to her floor and slowly walked out of the small container and into the hall. As she approached her apartment, she stood in front of the door and mustered up the strength to go in.

She reached into her purse, where she had her keys and her pregnancy tests hidden there. She soon inserted they key, twisting the doorknob and entering the apartment. "Natsu, are you home?" She called out as she closed the door behind her and locked it.

"Hey Erza!" The loud pinkette called out from the kitchen. "Ow!"

She heard a loud bang coming from the kitchen, prompting her to quickly check what Natsu was doing. "Natsu, are you okay?" She saw the man pulling his upper half-body from out under the sink. "What are you doing?"

"To answer your first question, yes, I'm alright," he rubbed the aching part of his head where it had collided with one of the sink's pipes. He got up from the floor now. "To answer your second question, I'm fixing the leaking pipe."

"Today was your first day back at work ever since the attack, why aren't you down at the fire station?" She crossed her arms around her chest.

"They sent me back, something about insurance and what not," Natsu wiped away a small drop of sweat running down his forehead. From what Erza can discern, Natsu had already sweat extensively seeing as his tank top was mostly wet. He had a few dirty stains here and there around his arms and face. "So, how was the visit with my doctor?"

"Oh it was alright," from the corner of her right eye awaited the bathroom for the privacy it provided. "Levy said that you should be good by now."

"That's good," Natsu said. "Well, I'm almost done fixing the pipe here, maybe after I'm done, we could just watch some movies and eat popcorn?" He suggested.

"That's fine by me but first, let me use the bathroom," she walked right over to it. "Be right out."

"O-" The door's loud slam cut his sentence in half. "-Kay. Geez, what's up with her?"

Back inside the bathroom, she took out the bag that contained the pregnancy tests. It took her at least under a minute to read the instructions on all boxes. **So I have to wait at least 5 minutes after I do my thing then, huh?** She raised an eyebrow but nonetheless, she did what she had to do to get her answers.

After a few minutes of doing her _business_ and what not, she finally found her answer. In all five pregnancy tests, they all had two horizontal lines, confirming that she indeed was pregnant. **Any chance all of these are false positives…?** She mentally chuckled.

"Oi, Erza, is everything okay in there?" Natsu loudly knocked on the door, bringing Erza out of the depths of her thoughts.

"Ugh," she quickly put the tests back into the bag along with their small boxes and into her purse. She didn't take any chances in throwing them into the small trash bin they had. "Ugh, yeah, everything is alright." As much as she wanted to tell him that she's carrying his offspring, Erza simply held her tongue until she felt it was the right time.

"You sure?" Natsu put his right ear to the door, trying to discern what his lovely wife was doing. "You're taking an awful long time. You still puking?"

He quickly took his ear off as soon as she opened the door. "I said I'm fine, Natsu." She reassured the pinkette.

He instantly put his right hand over her forehead. "You sure? You told me a few days ago that you might've been sick."

She removed his hand from her forehead. "As much as I love your concerns, I told you, I am totally fine."

"If you say so," he didn't bother with the questions anymore, instead he diverted her attention back to the sink. "Ah, check this out." He quickly headed to the sink.

"You finally fixed it?" She asked him.

"Yup!" He turned the faucet, letting the water pour down. Both of them looked down at the bottom part. "You see, no more leaky pipe."

"That's great!" She congratulated him.

"Yeah," Natsu closed the bottom cabinet's doors and clapped his hands to shake off both dust and dirt on his hands. "Well, I'm going to hop in the shower, then we'll just watch movies afterwards. Sound alright?"

"Yeah," she nodded, agreeing with what he said. "But instead of popcorn, can we just skip that and go straight to the ice cream?" Must've been the cravings she's experiencing at the moment.

"I guess." He scratched his head.

"Great then!"

After 20 minutes or so of scrubbing off the dirt and dust Natsu accumulated as he fixed the leaky pipe, he came out of the bathroom in his sleepwear; matching blue and white striped matching buttoned up long sleeved shirt and pants.

He looked to his right where a digital clock hanged next to the window was located. **5:47 P.M.** He read in his mind. He continued to walk straight from the bathroom, through the kitchen and into the living room. "Hey Er- WHAT THE HELL!?"

On the coffee table, he saw the newly bought mint chocolate chip ice cream and French vanilla ice cream buckets were empty. "I could explain this!" Erza said, still having small amounts of both ice cream flavors on her lips.

"You could've told me you were hungry…" He lightly groaned at the sight of both empty ice cream buckets.

"I'm sorry," wearing her usual pink pajamas, Erza got up from her seated position on the couch and walked towards her husband. "If it makes you feel any better, you can take the remaining ice cream I have from my lips." Flirting, she placed both her index and middle fingers on Natsu's lips while closing the gap between both of their bodies.

He slowly made a smile towards her. "Hmm, I can't stay mad at you." Taking her advice, Natsu gently moved both his arms around her waist as Erza moved hers to the back of his neck. His lips met hers, tasting the flavors of the ice cream that lingered on her lips.

Their lungs gasping for air, both of them ended their rather intimate kiss. "Now that that's been dealt with, how about we order some Pizza, and make it a large sized, I'm still rather hungry." She quickly went back onto the couch.

"What!?" Natsu jaw dropped, shocked to hear that Erza was still hungry. "You just ate both buckets of ice cream, by yourself. How in the world are you still hungry!?"

"I just am," she chuckled. "Besides, what harm can it do to me?"

"You're the damn doctor!" He remarked. "I'm just the Firefighter."

" _My_ firefighter," she corrected him. "Now are you going to order the pizza or not?"

…

The evening went by really quickly. After 4 almost 5 hours of watching 2 scary movies, 1 romance movie and 1 humor movie, it was finally time for the pair to hit the hay.

After brushing her teeth, Erza was the first to hop into bed. "Naaaatttttssssuuuuu!" In the most seductive tone, she called out to Natsu, who was still brushing his own teeth in the bathroom.

He spit out the dirty toothpaste from his mouth. "I'll be right there!" He took the remaining water he had in his cup and put it inside his mouth. Moving the water with his tongue for several seconds, he then spat it out into the bathroom's sink. "I'm coming now!"

Suddenly, as he was about to walk out, Erza came running right back to the bathroom, this time to the toilet. "HURGH!" She hurled into the toilet.

Natsu slowly walked right behind her, now standing next to her, holding her hair to prevent it from getting vomit. "There, there now."

"Is this the part where you tell me, 'I told you so?'" She asked.

"I'm a bigger man than that, Erz," he held her hair with one hand while the other took it's comfort place on her left shoulder. "You know that."

"I… I'm so glad to have you!" Erza now sobbed as she continued to spew out most of the junk she had eaten today. Must be the mood swings going at it again. "HURGH!"

"Shh, there, there Erza." Natsu continued to care for her.

"I think…". She panted, exhausted at the forced activity. "I think I'm done."

"Here," he gave her two tissues. One for her red swollen eyes from crying, the other for her to wipe away the dirty saliva that lingered on her lips. "I'm going to get you some water, be right back."

As he went to go get her a glass of water, Erza got one more napkin, this time to blow away the mucus that accumulated in her nose when she sobbed. Natsu came back in. "Here," he gave her the glass. "How are you feeling?" He went on his knees, going on the same level as Erza.

"I feel like shit at the moment…" She truthfully told him.

"Do you want me to carry you to the bed?" He asked her, tread fully moving his fingers through her red hair.

"… If it's not too much to ask for." She nodded at his request.

"For you, there's nothing too much to ask for." He smiled. Natsu got up and like at their wedding, he carried Erza bridal style. With his foot, he flushed the toilet and now walked back to their room.

He laid her on her side of the bed, tugging her in like a parent would do with their child. He then took his place on the bed, hugging and cuddling her from behind. "Are you still going to work tomorrow?" Natsu asked her as he petted her head.

"Yeah," she said. "Why?"

"Considering you're sick and all, wouldn't you be contagious to your patients?" He told her.

"What I have isn't contagious per say…" She rolled her eyes without him noticing it. While it's true that pregnancy isn't some type of sickness, Erza continued to resort with her little white lie.

"Is that why I haven't gotten sick yet?" He continued to ask her questions. She could feel his warm breath near her neck as he spoke.

"Definitely." She assured him of that.

"Oh, okay then," he stopped petting her head. "We should sleep now."

"Yeah, don't want neither of us to be late for work tomorrow." She turned to her other side, now facing his face.

"Goodnight then." Natsu gently kissed her forehead.

She smiled and returned the favor. "Goodnight."

…

The time between now and morning came by quickly. Erza had already dropped Natsu at work and by now, she was headed back to the hospital. Unlike most days, the streets weren't filled with cars and other vehicles thus was easy for Erza to maneuver around the streets and make it to work in no time.

Like always, she parked her car in her parking slot in the hospital's parking lot and made her way into the building.

As she neared the parking lot's elevator, Erza noticed a familiar physician getting off a motorbike's passenger side and leaving her be, waving goodbye at her ride. "Hey Levy!" Erza greeted her.

"Oh, hey Erza," Levy waited for her scarlet haired friend to be next to her so they can walk side by side. "So, anything you want to tell me?" Levy gave her a rather funny look.

"Gee, it's barely morning and already you're asking about the you know what." Erza retorted back at the bluenette.

"At this point, I can't tell whether that's actually how you're feeling or the pregnancy talking." Levy, with a discerning look on her face, said.

"A little bit of both," although it wasn't a question, Erza still answered. "And yeah, it's official." She sighed. "All of the pregnancy tests came back positive."

"Congratulations then!" She instantly gave her a hug but from the looks of it, Erza had a somewhat troubling face. "Why are you so down about it?" Levy knew Erza well enough to know that she always wanted kids, so the question had some merit to it so to speak. "You always told me that you wanted kids, so why are you down about it?"

"My hate for the unexpected is unnervingly higher than my love for kids," Erza explained as both walked into the elevator. "I've always been one or two steps ahead of everything, you know? But ever since the explosion, I haven't been able be a step ahead until now. Everything was getting back to normal, or at least becoming steady once more."

"And because you're suddenly pregnant, you feel as if everything is going to be too unpredictable to the point you can't do nothing about it, correct?" Levy added to Erza's statement.

Erza pressed the designated floor level. "Correct."

"Maybe this change isn't so bad, you know?" Like she's done in High school, Levy tried to open minded about this.

"How so?" Erza looked at Levy, hoping to hear what she meant by that.

"Well, unlike the other unfortunate event, this can turn out to be something good," Levy continued. "A baby can certainly make yours and Natsu's life certainly better if you keep your heads up through it all."

"I guess you're right," along with her back, she placed her head on the elevator's wall. "I was so busy with getting things back to the way it was that had forgotten what it meant for the future. Thanks for your input Levy."

"No problem, just one question." Levy asked.

"Yeah?" The elevator finally came to a stop and opened it's doors.

"Did you finally muster up your strength and tell Natsu that you are pregnant?" She asked.

"You're pregnant!?" A third familiar male voice coming from the hospital's main lobby joined in.

Both women turned away from each other and looked at the third person. "Jellal?" "Boss?" Both women said at the exact same time.

"No." "Yes." Both women answered but with far different answers.

In a state of confusion, the Dean of Medicine first glanced at Erza, to the right, then to Levy, to the left. "Okay, I'm confused now," he said. He looked back at Erza. "You're telling me that you're not pregnant but she's telling me that you are, so which is it?"

"I-" Before finishing her sentence, Erza looked back at the physician.

"Sorry Erza but you're on your own." And in a swift move, Levy had left her dust impression behind, leaving Erza to deal with Jellal.

"I'm waiting." He continued to stand in between the elevator's door, blocking both paths of escape.

"Okay fine," she surrendered. "Yes, I'm pregnant. Dunno how long though."

"Well congratulations," Jellal was now the second person to know that she was pregnant. "I take it from Dr. McGarden's earlier question is that you haven't told your husband yet, correct?"

"It's not that I don't want him to know, it's just-"

"You're having trouble finding the right time to tell him," Jellal finished her sentence. In his voice, Erza knew that Jellal had somehow had been in this type of situation before. "Correct? I know, I have been in Natsu's shoes before."

"Really?" She asked him, hoping to hear her boss's input in this.

"Between you and me though," Jellal entered the elevator and pressed a number to the floor. "I think you should've told him right away."

"I wanted to but, I guess you can say I'm a bit scared." She truthfully told him.

"In what? His reaction?" Jellal looked at her but Erza's eyesight was looking down on the floor. "You'd be surprise how happy a man can be when he finds out his lover is pregnant with his child, I was too."

"That's actually quite reassuring Jellal, thanks!" She took her gaze off the floor and looked back at the male bluenette. "That made me feel a lot better." She gave him a small smile. "And I never knew you had a kid."

"Oh about that…" He a small sweat drop came down his cheek as he lightly chuckled.

"You just lied, didn't you?" Her smile quickly turned to that of an annoyed smirk.

"Ah no," he scratched his cheek. "I found out that my girl cheated on me and my best friend was actually the father."

"Oh…" She put her hand over her mouth, covering her shock in the twist of the plot. "I am very sorry about that, I'm sure you would've been a great father."

"Probably, can't say the same to my friend though," Jellal bit his under lip. The elevator stopped and opened its doors to the doctors. "And I hope you take my advice."

"I will," Erza pressed the button back to the main lobby as soon as Jellal left. "I will tell him after work!"

"Oh and Erza." Jellal placed his arm in between the elevator's doors.

"Yeah?" She asked.

"You should probably get an ultrasound, just to see if that embryo is healthy." Jellal told her.

"I have thought about, maybe I'll pay a visit to our friendly Technician." The doors finally closed, finally letting her be by herself.

Erza's day was going by steadily. Before her lunch even started, she had already finished up at least 10 patient file reports, has sent more than 15 patients back home after they got well and so far have had no problems whatsoever, whether it be with a patient, a nurse, a doctor or her assistants, all in the span of 5 hours.

As her lunch approached, with her phone, she quickly made an appointment with an acquainted Sonographer.

"Hey there Porlyusica," Erza greeted who seemed to be the eldest person in the whole building. "I'm here for my scheduled appointment."

"My, my, Erza, it's been too long," the elder woman greatly shook hands with the scarlet haired doctor. "How have you been?"

"I've been good, and you?" Erza followed her into room. She took a seat on the patient table, unbuttoning her white coat and pulling up her black undershirt, revealing her tummy.

"I've been good too, just recently on Valentine's Day, my husband and I took a trip to the Shiari Islands and spent the most fantastic weekend?" The Shiari Islands is equivalent to that of Hawaii and the surrounding islands around it and is a very good resort to enjoy yourself.

"That sounds very romantic and I guess by your tone, you more than enjoyed yourself." Erza felt the technician put Vaseline around her womb area.

"I did, what did you and Natsu do on Valentine's Day?" Porlyusica asked as she placed imagine device on her stomach.

"I guess you can say we tried new naughty things." Erza chuckled as she could still remember that particular day. From the car to their bedroom and to even their bathtub, she and Natsu explored each other in ways many that'll leave many people, especially couples very jealous. It was clear to her that she and Natsu, from their couple days in high school to their very wedding, were very much in love with each other, even to this day.

"You still read those erotic stories?" The elder woman asked, trying to clear the image on the screen.

"Every once in awhile." Erza looked up at the screen and what she saw made her smile in delight.

"There you go," Porlyusica finally got a clearer image of the little Natsu inside of Erza. "Well would you look at that, that is quite a healthy embryo you have carrying there, Erza."

"It's beautiful," despite it being in black and white, Erza couldn't help herself but to think about how her and Natsu's baby looked like, which made her continue to smile in delight. "Can you tell whether it's a boy or a girl, yet?"

"No at the moment, this little fellow here is barely 2 to 3 weeks old," Porlyusica said, moving the device around Erza's stomach to get a better angle on the embryo. "At least another 3-4 weeks to discern it's gender."

"Oh, that's alright." Erza stared intently at the screen, imagining in her head what kind of parents she and Natsu would be.

"I envy you a bit Erza." Porlyusica had a fragile smile across her face.

"Why is that?" She asked the elder woman.

"I could never have a kid of my own." The older woman looked down at the ground, slowly turning the smile she had on to that of a sad one.

"Why?" Erza now raised an eyebrow. She wondered what made the older pinkette woman not have any children.

"I had infertility problems," she continued to tell her. "No matter what my husband and I did, I could never get pregnant, even in our earlier years."

"That's… pretty sad…" Erza now felt a slight guilty emotion loom over her. "What happened next?" She said, hoping the woman's story got any better.

"Eventually, I got depressed. My depression got the better of me and for days I wouldn't want to move away from the bed," the elder woman deeply sighed. "As I got older I knew that the infertility problems were going to get worse, and my depression would soon have left me in a bigger hole…"

"How did you cope with it?" Erza couldn't imagine how Porlyusica felt much less wonder how she would feel if she had the same problems as her.

"Eventually, my husband had the idea of adopting a child," a small tear rolled down her wrinkly cheek. "And I followed his lead on it. So the next day, we went to an orphanage and…" She stopped. Erza could see that the old woman couldn't help but smile, even as to chuckle lightly.

"What happened next?" Erza wanted to know the rest of the story, intrigued.

"The little rugrats were all so cute and adorable," a bright joy in her voice replaced the sudden sad emotions she had. "And right there and then, I tell him, 'I want to take all of them home, hug them, kiss them and nurture their little hearts!' You wouldn't believe the look on his face when I told him that." She laughed, she could still remember the face of shock her husband had to this day.

"And did you?" Erza couldn't help but add her small chuckles as well.

"As much as I wanted to, he told me I can pick four." Porlyusica said.

"Four!?" Erza now imagined herself and Natsu in the old woman's place. To think that they would have a full household like that would be the day.

"Yes, four," she further explained. "We wanted a big family."

"Which four did you pick?" Erza now asked.

"2 boys and 2 girls," she looked up at the ceiling, remembering the day like it was yesterday. "The 2 boys were Timothy and Jason. The 2 girls were Sam and Ellie. I didn't really care about their race and color, all I knew is that I was going to be their mother." She happily sighed.

"One can assume that you'd be a great mother," Erza agreed with her last sentence. "Where are they now?"

"Ah, Tim now teaches at a University, still hasn't found the right girl yet. Jason is a Veterinarian, and has 2 kids with a lovely wife. Sam owns her own restaurant, lost her husband a few years ago but is still strong about it. And Ellie…" Her tone quickly changed to back of that of a sad one once she mentioned her second daughter.

"What happened to Ellie?" Erza continued with the questions. Something must have happened to the girl if Porlyusica shuts her mouth once she mentions her.

"Ellie… She became ill. She had a tumor in her brain that not even the best surgeons can remove," her voice became hoarse, holding back her tears. "At the age of 16, we were told that she only had 4 months to live. Could you imagine, as a parent, not see your child do the things you've ever done as a teenager? Never experiencing your first kiss? Your first date? Wanting to dance at the High School prom?"

"Must've been very painful to see her in that state of way…" A small tear slowly escaped Erza's eye, slowly streaming down her cheek. No parent should ever see their kid die before them.

"On her birthday, we all come together and go visit her grave-site, we stand there and wait until the sun sets…" Porlyusica finally stopped speaking for a bit. She then turned her attention back to Erza, quickly wiping away the streams that went down her cheeks. "I'm sorry about my rambling Erza."

"No, it's okay," Erza gave her a weak but gentle smile. "You must've loved her very much. I can't imagine losing a kid of my own, much less watch them die in front of my eyes."

"Take my advice Erza, no matter what, always love your children. They may make a mess, break your stuff, drive you crazy and even break your heart every once in awhile but always love them unconditionally," Porlyusica gave her pieces of towels to use to wipe away the Vaseline. "Life is too short and precious, so make the most of it happy for yourself, Natsu and your children."

"Thank you," Erza cleaned herself, pulled her shirt back down and buttoned up her coat. "Don't worry, I'll take your advice with great consideration."

"Alright, now run along now, you must have other things to do other than hear me yapper about." She pushed Erza out of the room and waved goodbye.

"Bye now." Erza waved goodbye, now returning to her duties.

After a few minutes of running around the hospital, jogging in between patients and whatnot, Erza finally made it to her sanctuary; her office. She sat back on her chair, taking in small, steady breathes, relaxing and enjoying her few minutes of solace.

She took one last breathe in before straightening her back on her chair. She took a small glance at her computer screen then turned a few inches to the right where a picture of her and Natsu was framed. **Telling him right now is the best choice…** She picked up the picture, bringing it closer to her face.

She sat there in silence and finally made a decision. Erza put her picture back on the desk where it stood and smiled. She now reached into her phone and quickly dialed a number.

"Hey Erza," a distinctive male voice said, quickly identifying her. "What's up?"

"Nothing much Natsu," Erza leaned back onto her chair once more. "Do you have a minute to spare?"

"Well, nothing has happened so far," she could hear a small squishy sound coming from his side. "I'm just cleaning the Fire Truck with Juvia, so yeah I can spare the minute."

"I have to tell you something very important." She took in a deep breath, now gathering her thoughts and right words to say to him.

"Shoot." He told her.

"I-" Suddenly, while finally addressing her news, an argument between what seemed to be a disgruntled patient and a doctor seemed to have gotten loud enough to the point it raised a concern from outside her office.

"Erza? Who's that with you?" Natsu can also hear the argument from his side of the line.

"I don't know…" She got up from her chair, still having the phone near her ear and threaded carefully to her door.

_**BANG! BANG!**_ Multiple gun shots were now fired, which prompt Erza to take cover near her wall and away from her door.

"Erza? ERZA!?" Natsu called out to her, trying not to fear the worse of what's happening. "What the hell is going on over there!? I just heard gun fire! Are you okay!?"

"I'm fine," her voice was well enough for him to be reassured for the moment. "Something's happening. I'm going to go and check it out."

"Erza wai-" She hung up, now investigating the cause of the shooting.

"YOU TOLD ME THAT YOU COULD DO THE BEST YOU CAN!" A tanned crimson haired man yelled, waving around a small gray pistol said. The shots fired earlier were aimed at the ceiling, trying not to actually use the bullets on the people in the floor.

"I'm sorry!" A nurse in pink scrubs tried apologizing, but it wasn't enough.

Erza continued to observe while trying to be hidden behind a cart. She could see the man wasn't a patient, so he had to be some type of a visitor. The hall they were was similar to that of an ICU, except the patients weren't in need of emergency care.

Doctors and other nurse knelt where they stood, covering their heads with their arms. A few guards were there but the situation was too risky for them, considering the man held the nurse he was yelling at gunpoint while standing next a patient she was treating or trying.

"My wife is dying! And all you can muster up is a damn 'Sorry'!?" He had the gun near face, intimidating her. As if his small scar over his eye wasn't enough. "Where's your goddamn boss!?"

From what Erza can discern in her hidden position, the patient the two were standing next to was a female with a distinguishable purple hair. She couldn't tell what the woman had but guessing from the desperate man's pleas, Erza knew that the woman was dying.

"I don't know…" She told him.

"I'll ask again," the crimson haired man now pulled the pistol's hammer, readying to pull the trigger. "WHERE THE FUCK IS YOUR BOSS?!"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you!" The guard said. Although a Taser gun isn't as threatening as an actual gun, he was still armed with it, ready to use it in anyway he can.

"I'm the one with a hostage, back off!" He warned him.

"He…" The nurse couldn't hold her tears no more and two streams went down her cheeks.

"He's right here!" The Dean of Medicine suddenly appeared, astonishing everyone in the large hall.

"I've got a bone to pick with you!" As much as the man wanted to point his gun at the bluenette, he didn't. He still had his sights on the nurse.

"So I've heard Mr. Cobra." Jellal, with his arms stretched above his head, slowly walked towards the armed man.

"Just call me Erik!" He continued to hold the gun near the Nurse's head.

"Easy now, why don't you just point the gun at me?" Erza couldn't discern whether Jellal was being a dumbass or not. "Don't worry, the guard won't shoot you."

"Like hell I will!" The guard didn't seem to pleased with what Jellal said.

Like a human traffic light, Jellal extended his arm towards the cop, halting him from doing anything rash. "Stand back! The taser would mostly likely pull a muscle and unintentionally make him shoot!" He told the guard.

"But-"

"No buts, I got this! Go wait for the cops to show up instead!" Jellal yelled, instructing the guard to obey his order.

No words came out of the guard. He lowered his taser gun and in a glimpse of a second, hurried his way through the hospital and to the main lobby.

Jellal now looked at the other guards that were nearby. "Put some of the patients inside rooms along with both staff and visitors." He ordered them.

And with that, the guards did as they were told; moving the patients and escorting civilians and staff alike to a different nonlethal part of the hospital.

"Good, we could use the alone time!" Erik mustered up a small smirk. The floor was going to be his and the Dean of Medicine.

"Would you like them to take your wife?" Jellal asked, slowly dragging his feet more closer to Erik.

"No!" His gun was pointed at the nurse but his eyes glared back at Jellal. "You're going to stay and diagnose her right! Then give her the proper medicine she needs to recuperate!"

" _Proper?_ Are you saying that she was misdiagnosed?" Jellal raised an eyebrow at the sound of the word. Was the man really hoping that one of their doctors mistakenly gave her the wrong diagnoses of her symptoms.

"Yeah!"

From having a hall filled with patients and such, their current surroundings were now empty, besides the man's wife on the bed, the nurse at gunpoint, him and the secretly hiding Erza.

"Tell me, what was the diagnoses that our doctor told you?" As Jellal stalled, the information was quite intriguing to him.

"..." The man didn't speak. A sign that it must be a pretty bad diagnoses if it left the man speechless. He cleared his throat and now gathered the words missing from his tongue. "... Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease..."

"Oh," A small gasp escaped from Jellal's mouth. Wasn't very often that he had a patient come down with an incurable disease walk right down to his hospital. "I'm... very sorry."

"Don't give me your damn pity!" Erik yelled once more. He clearly was in denial and him holding down the hospital's 7th floor was a clear sign of that. "I want you to give me an accurate diagnoses! So that way you can treat it and save my wife!"

Jellal's brows furrowed. Doing this for the man could stall him long enough for the police to get here and arrest him but any sudden hints of stalling or lying at that could render him bullets to his body. He continued to think it through.

**Is he actually going to do it?** Erza glanced over at the bluenette, hiding behind the cart that continued to conceal her. **He's probably thinking through the risks... Waiting too long to give a new diagnoses would raise suspicions but also giving him the wrong diagnoses could lead to the same thing... Is he really-**

"One condition." Jellal finally spoke, attracting Erza's eyes back to him.

"What's that?" Erik asked.

"I want to switch places with the nurse." Erza's eyes widened as Jellal said his one and only requirement.

"Deal," Erik now turned the gun's barrel at Jellal. "Scram lady!"

Having her hands underneath her eye sockets, the nurse quickly dash out of the dire situation, finally out of Death's site.

"Alright, I'll go w-"

"Wait!" Erza jumped out of from behind the cart, alarming both men of her presence.

"Who the hell are you!?" Erik's eyes glanced over by the cart she was hiding behind, same as Jellal.

"Erza! What the hell are you doing here!?" As much as Jellal was surprised, he knew he was supposed to expect something like this.

"As much as I respect the Dean of Medicine here, I think I'm your best option at giving the patient a better diagnosis." She said, slowly walking towards the pair with her arms above her waist.

"What's she talking about?" Cobra wanted Jellal to elaborate on what Erza just said.

"Yeah Jellal, please tell the man here that I'm your best doctor in this hospital." Erza continued say.

"…" Jellal held his tongue. He knew what Erza was doing and that was trying to switch places with him. **Has she gone mad!?** He gulped down the ball of saliva he gathered in his mouth. Staying quiet would only raise suspicion but what was he supposed to say?

"Come on, let me switch places with him." Erza now offered the gunman her life for her boss.

"Erza, don't!" Jellal finally stopped his silence, only to try to stop what the scarlet haired doctor was doing.

"Now why would I do that?" Erik wasn't easily convinced to what Erza offered him. "He's the boss man, shouldn't he already be the better doctor?"

"The man literally has sat behind a desk for more than 2 years, while I continued to work and make my patients better, what more of a better reason do you want?" She said, hopefully her reasoning was enough for the switch.

"That true?" Jellal could feel the warm barrel of the gun right on his back.

"It's true to some extent…" Jellal sighed, telling him the truth.

"Then that's good enough for me, go, run along to the cops while the lovely doctor over here takes care of my wife!" Cobra made up his mind, telling Jellal to scram.

"I was afraid you were going to say that…" Jellal walked towards Erza. "I really hope you know what you're doing…" He whispered to her.

"I know what I'm doing." Erza whispered back.

"You're life isn't just on the line, what about that baby you're carrying around as well? And what if you're raging baby hormones kick in!?" Jellal slightly elevated his tone but was still inaudible to the gunman.

"I got it covered." Erza tried to assure him of that.

"HEY! What's the hold up!?" Cobra yelled out to them.

"You just got to trust me!" Erza told Jellal, departing now.

…

Back in the main lobby of the hospital, a group of cops with standard bulletproof vests were standing huddled up, thinking of ways to approach the gunman in the seventh floor.

"Ah, Chief Laxus." Jellal had made it down in a nick of time, greeting the officer.

"Your guard told me the situation, is the nurse alright?" Laxus shook his hand. It's been a while since he last saw the good doctor.

"She's alright, you got bigger problems now." Jellal sighed, not sure to tell him the new situation at hand.

"Bigger? What happened?" Lexus asked.

"The man's wife is dying, that may have triggered the whole thing with the gun." Jellal told him.

"So the man is under stress, figured much, but I take that's not the only problem." Laxus could see that Jellal was holding something back.

"I managed to convince the gunman to take me instead of the nurse…" His voice trailed off.

"Wait why are you here then?" Laxus didn't like where this was going.

"Because Erza manager to convince the gunman to take her instead!" Jellal brushed his hair with his hand in one sweep, showing his stress.

"Why am I not surprised at that…?" Laxus cocked his head around.

"Sir?" Laxus' small radio called out to him.

"Yeah?" He pressed the side button and answered back.

"I got a view on our target and he's moving the patient and the doctor to a secure room."

"Who's that?" Jellal asked.

"Our sniper, in case the gunman doesn't want to negotiate and/or goes nuts," Laxus told him. He pressed the button once more and radioed back. "Copy that."

"You're going to go in?" Jellal asked once more.

"Yeah," Laxus said. "We'll see if he needs anything, if he doesn't want to negotiate we might have to go in loud."

"Flashbang or smoke grenade?" He continued to ask his questions.

"Why does that concern you?" Laxus raised an eyebrow.

"Because either two would hurt both Erza and the patient." Jellal exclaimed.

"It would not endanger Erza unless she's pregnant or something." Laxus assured him of that.

Jellal was covered in silence which made Laxus slightly nervous.

"… She's pregnant?" Laxus had to assume considering the doctor did not want to say.

"Yeah." Jellal truthfully answered.

"Dammit!" Laxus turned to look at his team. "Change of plans guys, a new piece of information came in and it looks like our gunman is holding a pregnant hostage. No flashbangs or smoke grenades of any kind now."

"Yes sir!" His trio said in unison.

"I SAID LET ME THROUGH!" A loud voice said from within the crowd. Suddenly one of the cops holding back the people with the crime scene tape was thrown into the lobby.

"GET HIM!" One of the other cops said as the man with a distinguishable pink set of hair came in, barging into the hospital.

"Natsu?" Both Laxus and Jellal said at the same time when they realized who was barging in.

"Whoa, hold your positions men, I know this fellow." Like trained hound dogs, the cops stood back in their positions.

"The hell are you doing here, Natsu?" Jellal asked as he helped back up on his feet.

"I was on the phone with Erza when she and I heard the gun shots," Natsu wiped away the dirt from his clothing. "Where is she? Is she okay?"

"Unfortunately, Erza is now a hostage taken by the gunman." Laxus told him of the current situation.

"She went with him on her own free will." Jellal added.

"Oh for God's sake, why on Earth would she do that!?" Natsu walked around in circles, more concerned of Erza's safety than ever.

"Don't worry, my men and I are on their way now." Laxus told him.

"Then what the hell are you still loafing around here then!?"

…

Back to Erza, she, Cobra and his wife who is known as Kinana, have moved into a patient room. She started to reconnect and hook some of the cables and such back on to the ill woman. "So doctor, have you come up with any other diagnoses other than…CJD?"

"Could possibly be Parkinson's disease, but Alzheimer's, Pick's and Huntington's diseases are also top contenders." Erza now looked at the Clipboard which hanged at the end of the bed, looking for viable information.

"Are any of those… slightly better than what she currently has?" As Cobra continued on with the conversation, he looked outside the window where patrol cars were out in the front parked.

"Define better." She skimmed through Kinana's family history, hoping either side of her family tree had similar diseases.

"I don't know? Curable? Manageable?" Cobra wiped away sweat that dripped down from the side of his face. "I'm not a doctor, you know. I'm just the man with the gun."

"None of them are curable," she continued to turn the pages, going from medical history to high school and career history. "All of them are manageable but 2 out of the four will always end in death, to say the least."

"Which are the manageable ones?" His concerns were more worried about which ones that don't cause death than the ones that do, even though all of them are equally as bad to get.

"Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, they both have higher rates of death." She said, finally putting down the clipboard.

"Find anything that helps you make a better diagnosis?" He asked. The excruciating wait was indeed killing his curiosity.

"Neither paternal or maternal sides of the family have exhibited any of the diseases mentioned so the disease is not hereditary." She stood at the end side of the bed, focusing her eyes on the patient, hoping to see anything that could help her.

"What about the X-Ray's? The MRI's and MRA's? Did those not help you!?" More distress than ever, Cobra was ready to snap unless Erza can give him a different answer.

"All of the scans confirm that it is indeed CJD," She hears the gun clip. Is her death near? Her options are to either give the man a good lie or somehow convince him that he's in denial, but either two will lead with someone dying. And outcome does not weigh on him dying. "But…" She notices a syringe that is filled with chloral hydrate on the counter next to the patient. A nurse must've forgotten it.

"But what?" Though the gun seemed ready to be in used, Cobra hasn't raised it to her yet.

In quick sudden movements, she reached for the syringe, getting Cobra off-guard and almost jabbing the knockout sedative right into his neck. "But this!" As fast as she was though, Cobra quickly reacted holding Erza's arm from stabbing him.

"You bitch!" And with that, he kicked her right in her stomach area, knocking her right at the end of the bed while the weapon she had fell from her hand.

"Ah!" She yelped. From her forced seated position, she saw Cobra kick away the syringe, breaking it on the wall. "Guess that plan didn't workout after all…"

"That's it!" He now has his murderous intentions in him.

"Don't shoot me, please!" Sounding like the nurse from before, Erza now begged for her life as the tip of the barrel of the gun was now the last thing she might see.

"Why shouldn't I shoot, doctor?" The crimson haired fellow now pointed his gun towards the doctor who was supposed to help him, whether she complied or he forced her. "Even after you almost stabbed me, give me a good reason why I shouldn't blow your damn brains, guts or limbs off!?"

"..." Erza held her breath, thinking of what to say to the man.

"Tell me!" He yelled at her once more, this time holding the gun near her face.

She could no longer hold her tears and a stream of them rolled down both cheeks. "I-" She sobbed, rubbing away the tears that signified her fear. "I… I'm pregnant!"

"You're… You're pregnant?" Cobra's hand now shook, was it fear that he was going to kill a soon to be mother? Or was his murderous intentions were now clouded with a conscious?

"Y-Yes…" She weakly said, continuing to sob into her hands.

"Oh fuck…" He lowered the gun and walked towards Erza. "I-I kicked you in the stomach for God's sakes, did I hurt you bad? Is your baby OK?"

"W-What?" Erza was now confused at the current predicament. Was the man that was about to kill her asking whether she and her 3 week old fetus growing in her uterus OK? Or did he kick her hard enough for her to knockout and this was some sort of dream?

"I am terribly sorry, I really had no intentions of hurting anyone!" His concerns were real. "I just reacted! I'm truly sorry, ma'am!"

"I'm sorry for trying to stab you, I was just scared…" She rubbed her red puffed up eyes.

"I completely understand, here let me help you up." He offered her his hand and he helped her back up on her feet.

"Thank you…" She weakly said.

"Erik? Are you there? Why is it dark here?" Kinana finally awoke from her slumber.

"Kinana!" He went to her bedside. He placed the gun on the bed, holding her left hand with both of his hands. "I'm right here baby!"

"I can't see you!" She hardened her grip onto his hands, frightened.

"What do you mean? The lights aren't on but the sunset still provides the necessary light." Cobra's worries worsened.

"Oh no…" Erza covered her mouth, hiding the small gasp that almost escaped.

"Who's that?" Kinana could hear Erza but could not see her.

"That's the new doctor," Cobra answered her. "She standing on the right side of the bed."

"Doctor, what's wrong with me!?" Kinana's voice was hinted with a small cry.

Erza just stood, trying to discern the new symptom the woman developed. "Doctor?" Cobra now asked.

"The other doctor…" Erza finally said something. "The other doctor… how time did he tell you, you had Mrs. Cobra?"

"Is something the matter?" Kinana asked her.

"Just answer my question!"

"He told us at least 4 months, 6 if she was lucky." Erik answered for her.

"This can't be right…Mrs. Cobra, can you move your limbs?" Erza asked her.

"I can't feel my legs, and I can barely move my right arm." Kinana felt the numbness all throughout her body.

"How about a memory? Can you think back to a time when you were a little girl?" Erza now gave her a new task.

"I can't. I don't remember anything, all I can think of are vague memories…" Kinana continued to answer Erza's questions. "Thinking just makes my head hurt."

"No…" Erza said underneath her breathe.

"Doctor, please tell us what you told her to do was all about?" Erza couldn't risk Erik losing control again as he did earlier.

Blankness. Her mind came to a blank. No more ideas or any type of thinking can stall the inevitable that could help her. Either she came clean with the truth she has concluded or risk having another episode from the man.

"I-"

Just as she was about to speak, their door was suddenly slammed in, breaking the door's handle and the top hinge, banging loudly on to the wall. "MCPD! Drop your weapon!"

Thinking she was finally saved, Erza was about to move until something from the corner of her eye stopped her from moving: Erik once again pointing the gun at her.

"Sir, I'm not going to ask again! Put the gun down!" The blonde cop with a similar striking scar on his face repeated loudly once more.

"I will shoot her!" Erik threatened.

"Don't do it man! You shoot her and we'll shoot back! I don't want this to end in a bloodshed, do you?" The cop tried to re-elevate the man's stress levels.

Erza stared from right to left from where she stood. On the right, she she's four heavily armed men ready to shoot if the man doesn't comply with what they tell him and on the left, she sees a man who's scared to death. Not by the cops with bigger guns but by the fear of losing his loved one. "Erik." Erza called out to him.

"Erza…" Laxus turns his head a few degrees to look at the scarlet haired doctor. "What are you doing?"

"Just give me a minute!" Not having many options to go around, Laxus simply nodded to her request. "Erik."

"What doctor!?" Cobra loudly answered to his call.

"Do you remember why you were doing this in the first place?" Erza asked, hoping that reminding him of his clear task.

"I…" He stopped mid sentence but his finger hasn't left the trigger. "I wanted answers for my wife."

"Yes," Erza turned to look at Kinana. From the way Kinana's eyes shook, she was clearly lost in her thoughts not even knowing what is currently going on. "I have your answers, but they're not good."

"Don't tell me that they're not good!" His slight action by gripping the gun with both hands was alarming but the 4 cops didn't react.

"You have to listen to me!" Erza raised her voice. "The disease, it's still CJD! I know you don't want to hear it, but it's true!" She gulped down a bit of saliva that hanged around her mouth. "All of the symptoms point to that!"

"No, no, no!" Cobra continued to chanter the word No. He's becoming more distressed and soon both Erza and Laxus were going to have to deal with what the man was going to do.

"Erik!" Erza still continued their conversation. "Please put the gun down!"

No longer pointing the gun at her, he used his arm to cover the emotional tears that streamed along his cheeks. "…"

With a nod, Laxus signaled his team to advance slowly, hoping for a quick take down with brute force. Just as they neared, instead of pointing the gun at Erza, he now pointed the gun near his temporal. "Stand back! I will shoot myself!"

"Whoa now, take it easy Mr. Cobra." Laxus, along with his squad, took a few steps back.

"Erik!" Erza called out to him once more. "Why are you going to kill yourself!?"

"My wife is dying! I don't deserve to live a life without her next to me!" His hand shook with every second that pass by as he held the gun that would end his life.

"Would you really want her to have the last image of you like this!?" Erza exclaimed back. Losing a loved one is pain enduring yes, but having the last image of the loved one dying in front of you is also emotional scarring.

"She won't remember this in q couple of days anyways!" He yelled back.

"She doesn't have long! Her symptoms are worsening and if she's lucky, she'll live 'til the end of the week!" Erza now fully told him the truth. The six months that they thought she was going to live was now shortened to that of a week, maybe even less. "This will be the last memory she'll ever have of you! Do you really want her to have this last image of you carried to her grave!?"

Erik froze up. His hand no longer shook and his tears stopped as his eyes widened as he heard the news. "W-What?"

"You heard me," she lowered her tone to match his. "She doesn't have long, she needs you to be by her side! Don't let her last image be you committing suicide or rotting in a prison cell as she dies herself! She would want her loved to live on!" Her voice became a bit hoarse but a small cough fixed that. "So put the gun down, and be with her. Please."

He didn't want to believe the words that came out of the doctor's mouth. But what if the things she was saying about his wife true? Did she really only have a few days to live? Would this be how he would be remembered? But still he continued not to listen.

"Erik, honey?" But the soothing voice of his wife was back.

"Kinana, I'm so sorry…" His voice broke once again with two streams of tears following it.

"Erik, whatever happens to me, I just want you to know that I'll never hold anything against you," her eyesight was gone but her hearing was enough for her to face her lover. "All those dreams and wishes we both wanted to do, we can do in the next life. I'll even have a boombox on my shoulder, playing our song so you would know it's me."

"Kinana…" He still had the gun to his head but his finger was no longer on the gun's trigger: a sign of devaluation of stress.

"Mr. Cobra, please put the gun down," Laxus asked once more, hoping this time some compliance from him. "I'll make sure the both of aren't separated, does that sound good?"

And the compliance that both Erza and Laxus long waited: Erik dropped the gun and kicked it aside. He soon went on his knees and placed his hands on the back of his head.

With a nod, Laxus sent one of his men to cuff him. "Kinana, baby, I love you!" He told her as his hands were placed on his lower back. The cuffs were cold but he simply disregarded them.

"I love you too, even if I can't see you anymore." She said back to him. That's all he wanted to hear at the moment.

"Boss, what do we do now?" One of his men asked, lowering his assault rifle.

"I…" Laxus didn't know until a certain scarlet haired doctor lightly punched his shoulder.

"You promised him that he can be with his wife, so are you going to make that happen or what!?" Erza asked him in the most infuriating tone. She had hoped the Chief of Police would at least give the man that, to spend the rest of his days with his wife before being sent to jail.

Laxus gave out a big and heavy sigh. He looked at Erza once more and then went to his walkie-talkie. "10-15, I repeat, suspect is in custody."

"10-4, would transport be needed?" The other person on the other line said.

"Negative, find me a sympathetic judge instead, tell them that the suspect's wife is dying and he wants to be with her 'til the end." He told them.

"Affirmative." The other line now hung up.

"Thank you." Erza gave the Chief a small smile. Laxus simply returned the gesture.

…

Everything was sort of back to normal. The room that held Kinana was now under surveillance and the halls of the hospital were once again filled with both patient and doctors alike.

"Are you sure nothing happened to you?" A certain pinkette followed the scarlet haired doctor who was taking him some place in the hospital.

"I'm fine Natsu, remember earlier in our cell phone conversation that I needed to tell you something?" Erza recollected as she continued to lead the way.

"Yeah, before the whole gunshots and whatnot," Nat's scratched his head as he thought about it. "What were you going to tell me that was so important at the time?"

"Instead of telling you, why don't I just show you instead," she said. She finally stopped in front of a room she was in earlier. "Here we are." She opened the room.

To Natsu's surprise, the room had no doctor in it. Just a TV monitor, an old type of ultrasound scanner, a patient's standard seat like bed, a computer monitor, and drawers and cabinets like in a corner. "Erz, what is this place?" Natsu asked.

Erza took the bugger seat. "Come, take the computer chair and sit next to me." She asked of him to do so.

A bit skeptical at what he and his wife were doing here but he didn't argue with any of it yet. As she requested, he did as he was told and brought the chair next to her, taking the seat. "Ok, what now?"

"Just wait patiently." She grabbed the Vaseline gel, opened it and lifted her shirt.

"Whoa, why do you have a bruise near your stomach?" Natsu looked at the small but distinguishable dark purple spot on her stomach.

"I may have had an altercation with Mr. Cobra." Erza left out that small detail from their earlier conversation.

"Did he gut-punch you or kick you in the stomach!?" He was mad that his wife kept this from him.

"Kick, but he said he was sorry, didn't mean to do it. Said it was just a sudden reaction." Erza told him.

"Oh, I'll give him a sudden reaction!" By the sound of his voice, Natsu wanted to return the favor.

"Natsu, please. What I'm about to show you is important, Ok?" She said, holding and gripping his hand tighter.

"Okay, I'm sorry." He apologized for his sudden temper, even though it was justifiable.

Erza let out a ball of air. She turned the TV monitor and grabbed the transducer from the sonogram that was next to them. She then turned the machine on and placed the transducer on her stomach part that had Vaseline. "Look at the screen now."

Natsu looked up and saw a jaw dropping, eye widening, sound waves picture of a small embryo, if that was the exact word he can remember from his college days. He couldn't believe it. He got up from his chair and looked closer at the screen.

"Natsu?" Erza was slightly worried. What if his reaction wasn't what she expected from him? No. She mentally slapped herself for that. She knew that Natsu was excited as her whenever they had the talks for a baby.

She could hear him breath in and out loudly. "Erza…" He faintly said.

"Yes?" She answered. Her heart beat faster than before now. It was the moment she was now expecting.

"How old is it?" He asked her.

"About to be 3 weeks…" Erza responded.

"When did you find out that you were pregnant?" He asked her another question.

Annoyed at his questions, she couldn't help but answer. "Yesterday, when I was in the bathroom."

"When you took an awful-"

"Yes!" She answered before he was able to finish his sentence. She wanted to know how he really felt about this. About a mini Natsu growing in her. "Natsu, enough with the questions baby. I want to know how you actually feel."

Natsu turned around. Erza could see the stream of tears that went down his cheeks. "I'm so freaking happy!" He ran to her side once again, getting her off guard with a kiss.

A passionate kiss at that. The two finally stopped their kissing when their lungs begged for air. "I'm glad." Erza now let her tears of joy fall.

"Erza, do you know what this means!?" An enthusiastic tone come out of Natsu's mouth.

"You're going to be a dad and I'm going to be a mom?" She guessed.

"Yeah! I'm going to be something my own father never was to me." Natsu said, turning back to look at the screen where his soon to be child was shown.

"You're going to be a great father." Erza added to his sentence.

"Guess that'll finally make Igneel a great-grandfather, huh?" He giggled but Erza's giggles quickly joined his.

"The question is though," Erza looked at the screen before finishing her sentence. "Is it a male or female?"

"Female." Natsu quickly jumped the gun.

"Oh really?" Erza raised an eyebrow at his sudden assumption. "What makes you say that?"

"I just know it," Natsu smiled. He looked at Erza. "And that'll mean I'll have two queens in my life."

And with his compliment, Erza pecked her lips with his once more, liking the sound of what he just said. "Now the bigger question is, what shall we name her?"

A sudden silence loomed over at Natsu like a cloud. "Crap."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: I guess by now, you would know exactly what I'm going to ask you and that is, name suggestions.
> 
> I'm really thinking of making their baby's gender female, so girl names I'll take. You can leave it in your review or you could PM the names. So far, the name Ashley is a good name but I'm open for more name suggestions before making my final decision.
> 
> Anyways, hope you like the chapter! And I'll really appreciate any good girl names for their baby. See you next time


	5. Bonus Chapter 2: First 3 Months

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Hey guys, I think I said this before but Bonus Chapters for this story are going to be rather smaller than the other chapters.
> 
> Anyways, I'm still open for more baby girl names for Natsu and Erza's kid. Either you can PM the name or leave the name in the review(s).
> 
> Anyways, story time…

_**1st Month** _

A month has passed already since Erza told him he was finally going to be a dad, and Natsu couldn't be any more happier and scared at the same time.

Happy, because well, who wouldn't be happy that the love of your life is carrying a little you inside of her. Well a little bit of herself as well. And the fact that you build so many memories with him or her, and in this case it's a her.

Scared, because well, they're going to be such a hassle. From giving you nights of little to no sleep to breaking everything and eating everything it sees. And the fact that when she grows up, you'll have to make choices that either make you a good parent or make you a bad parent.

Still though, the good outweighs the bad, and that's how Natsu and Erza will tend or will try to keep it that way.

It was already late at night and Natsu, along with his beloved wife, Erza, were doing their… sexual exploits as usual to lighten up their romance.

From making out nonstop to exploring each others bodies, they enjoyed every little bit of it. "Natsu…" Erza moaned. She held Natsu's head underneath the covers where he used his tongue to explore her lower body.

"Oooh…" She moaned loader than before, this time putting both her hands over Natsu's head and tightening her hands on his hair. She didn't neither pull or pushed his hair.

She could feel his tongue coming in and out of her vagina. And after a few seconds of that certain pleasure, Natsu finally stopped. He came of the bed sheets and laid right next to Erza. "How'd you like that?" He gave her a smirk as the two began to cuddle.

"I liked it very much," she put her left index over his lips and began to smooch with him. Their lips smacked together while the two giggled in between. "You know what I would like right?"

"Yeah?" Natsu grinned.

"I would like some Pineapples with chocolate right about now." She said. That killed the mood and tension they had.

It was going to be one of those nights where he has to venture all over the city just to find a store that is opened with the right foods or snacks. Natsu sighed. "Does that combination even taste good at all?"

"I don't know, I don't really care, just go to the store and buy them." She commanded.

And with that Natsu got up from his bed, quickly changed into his clothes, quickly washed his teeth and without further questions, went to go find a store that had what Erza wanted.

Luckily for him, Natsu remembered there was a 24 hour store not from where they lived. He quickly took his motion sickness pills and went his way.

At night, there was really no type of traffic in the city of Magnolia. The City, in his mind, was truly asleep. He made his way into the store's parking lot and parked right in front of it. He turned off his engine, went out of the car, locked it and walked right in.

He looked around and saw exactly the stuff he needed. Fresh pineapples and wondrous amounts of chocolates from Nestle Crunch to Snickers. He grabbed 3 pineapples and grabbed as much as he could of chocolates and walked straight towards the register.

"Pineapples and… Chocolates?" The man looked puzzled at combo.

"Don't ask." Natsu didn't want to explain himself.

"Are you high?" Even when Natsu said don't ask, the man behind the register did anyways.

"No." Natsu said, irritated at having to answer that question.

"Let me guess, wife is pregnant and she's having those weird cravings, isn't she?" The machine beeped as the man passed the chocolates through the scanner.

"Yeah." He rolled his eyes.

"Trust me man, it gets better." The man tried to reassure him.

"Really?" Natsu asked.

"No."

_ **2** _ _ **ND** _ _**Month** _

"Damn Natsu, you look like hell." Elfman, his firefighter coworker, said as he noticed Natsu's red puffy eyes.

"You're telling me," Natsu yawned as he sat on the bench near the lockers. "I was up all night trying to find a pizza restaurant opened."

"Erza's cravings?" He asked the pinkette.

"Yeah, and when I finally got her the Hawaiian Pizza that she wanted, she had one of those sudden mood swings, threw the pizza in my face and told me to sleep on the couch…" Natsu rubbed his eyes. He felt a small burning sensation around them.

"Ouch." Elfman was putting on his firefighter gear now.

"Yeah, this morning she apologized for it," he deeply sighed, massaging the side of his neck. Must've accidentally slept on it wrong if it was hurt. "Man, I don't know how I'm going to survive the next 7 months if it keeps going like this…"

"Hate to be you right now." Elfman slightly laughed at Natsu's current predicament.

"I hate to be me right now." Natsu joined with his own laugh.

"Goddamn Natsu, did the wife not let you sleep?" Orga, another firefighter colleague, said as he came in and saw Natsu. Since Gildarts sudden departure, Orga had to step in as temporary Fire Department Chief.

"That's only the half of it…" He weakly laughed.

"Get some sleep bro, you need it." Orga patted the back of Natsu's shoulder.

"You got it, bossman." And with that, Natsu fell face flat to the ground and sleeper away.

"Not on the floor though…"

_ **3** _ _ **rd** _ _**Month** _

By now, Erza and her raging baby hormones practically run the hospital. Her belly was bigger and she enjoyed the attention she got when her coworkers, either doctor or nurse and patients gave her when they remarked on her size.

"Wow, your pregnancy is finally showing, huh?" Millianna, one of Erza's most reliable nurse and friend, remarked her.

"Yeah," Erza happily smiled. "I'm very happy."

"Why shouldn't you be happy? You always wanted a kid and in 6 more months, that little cure little girl of yours is going to come out." Millianna said.

"Me and Natsu are still trying to come up with good girl names." Erza exclaimed.

"Oh really?" Millianna tilted her head, a bit intrigued at the names they've come up with.

"Yeah, so far, we have at least 5 names we can name her." Erza said, now leaning on the counter. She gets easily tired now with the baby.

"That's good," Millianna gave her a thumbs up. "How is Natsu by the way? You haven't killed him yet, right?"

"Natsu is livid," Erza smiled. "He's been very helpful. He's been doing a lot actually."

"How so?" Millianna asked.

"He's helped me cook and clean the house, he's massaged my back whenever I get backaches and whenever I get my weird cravings, he always pulls through," Erza smiled. Natsu has not once complained about her in anyway. Maybe behind her back but probably nothing ill. "I swear, he's always good to me and I really love that about him."

"You got one of the good ones, that's why." Millianna complimented.

"Well I have to get back to work now, Millianna," Erza sighed. She stopped leaning on the counter and stood back straight. "Oh, I almost forgot, have you seen Jellal? I can't find him anywhere."

"Oh, he's probably hiding." Millianna started to fix a pile of patients files in order.

"Why?" Erza raised an eyebrow.

"Probably because your baby hormones now run this place." Millianna slightly laughed.

"I guess so."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Hope you like this little bonus chapter. And don't forgot to leave baby girl names in the reviews, your suggestions mean a lot to me.
> 
> Anyways, 'til the next update.


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